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News, Insights, & Study Tips
How to Write a Stand-Out College Admission Letter
A compelling card or letter serves as a follow-up to an application, reinforcing a student’s interest in an institution and reminding admissions officers of their strengths. This guide outlines key components, structure, and expert tips to help students craft an impactful letter that enhances their application.
Tutor Spotlight: Alisa Chung
Meet Alisa. She brings a compassionate and patient approach to tutoring. With extensive experience as a peer mentor and undergraduate teaching assistant, she excels in creating affirming learning environments tailored to neurodiverse students. Alisa’s academic background and dedication to inclusive education make her an invaluable asset to students striving to understand complex mathematical and scientific concepts.
Tutor Spotlight: Arek Rein Jungwirth
Meet Arek. He specializes in nurturing the academic growth of neurodivergent students and those with learning differences. With a psychology degree and robust experience in diverse teaching settings (incl. chess and unicycling!), Arek brings patience, creativity, and a deep understanding of individual learning needs to each session. His gentle approach ensures that every student feels valued and empowered to succeed.
Big Changes Are Coming to ACT in 2025 – Here’s What You Need to Know
The ACT is evolving, and the updates rolling out in 2025 will bring some exciting and impactful changes. If you’re planning to take the test soon, here’s everything you need to know about what’s new, how it will affect your prep, and what you can do to stay ahead.
Tutor Spotlight: Patrick Miller
Meet Patrick. As a credentialed educator with extensive experience teaching AP subjects in the classroom and leading speech and debate teams, Patrick specializes in test preparation. His innovative teaching methods and commitment to academic excellence have consistently fostered high achievement, making him a trusted mentor to scores of high-performing students.
How to Write a Personal Essay for a Typical College Application
Starting college applications is exciting, but writing a personal essay can be intimidating. The good news is that the best personal essays all share certain traits, and with practice, you can write your own show-stopper.
How to Write a Hook For a College Application Essay
Learn how your essay can stand out by utilizing attention-grabbing hooks. Let’s dive into what makes a good hook and review some college essay hooks examples.
Guiding Your Teen to Write a Winning College Admissions Essay: A Parent’s Guide
Unlock the secrets to a successful college admissions essay with this comprehensive guide for parents. Learn how to support your teen in crafting a standout essay that captures their unique strengths and experiences.
Tutor Spotlight: Mamie Stevenson Morago
Meet Mamie. With a decade of experience, Mamie guides students in crafting impactful admissions essays. Having graduated with a degree in literature, she brings a love of language and narrative expertise to the coaching process. Drawing from her professional background in copywriting, manuscript editing, and journalism, her goal is to help students identify unique perspectives and hone their story.
Top Ten Tips for Time Management During Standardized Tests
Learn how to tackle the unique challenge of time pressure on standardized tests. Discover strategies to improve your pacing and maximize your performance under the clock.
To Compete with SAT, ACT Trials Shorter, Digitized Test in June
In the competitive world of standardized testing, staying ahead means adapting to change. This year, both SAT and ACT embrace shorter as better.
ACT Plans to Expand Online Testing in US
After an initial pilot in December, ACT hopes to offer its exam in a computer-based format alongside paper-and-pencil in more testing centers across the US into 2024.
AP Exams: Myths vs. Facts You Should Know
We debunk five popular myths surrounding Advanced Placement exams to equip you with the knowledge to be more prepared and confident this May. Read now!
Study Habits You'll Need to Succeed in College
Learn how to stay organized, prioritize tasks, get high scores, and effectively manage your time with our top 5 study tips so you can succeed in college.
The Most Effective Strategies to Master Your College Essay
Struggling to write the perfect college essay? Here are some of the most effective strategies that can help you master your essay & get into your dream school.
The Weight of the College Essay
The contemporary college admissions landscape is treacherous. Schools are reporting record application numbers since test-optional policies have gone mainstream, yet the number of available seats remains constant. There aren’t many things seniors can control at this point in the application process, considering GPAs are nearly finalized and suddenly joining four new extracurricular activities is bound to raise red flags for admissions committees. The college essay, though, is the one piece that still needs to be added to the enormous puzzle of lists and numbers that composes your academic portfolio.
College Board Drops New Specs on Digital SAT
College Board is taking seriously the role of students as primary users, and the Digital SAT represents a massive effort to make the test more user-friendly. If this effort is successful, the number of test-takers annually will increase, rather than decrease (as predicted by test-optional proponents), which may make deciding not to submit test scores harder to justify for many students.
ACT Updates from the 2022 NTPA Conference
At the National Test Prep Association conference in Georgia on the weekend of July 11th, ACT’s CEO Janet Goodwin articulated what changes ACT would make in response to the SAT’s tectonic shift to digital testing. What’s changing? Well, not much.
ACT Strategies: How to Succeed in College Admissions, on the Test, and Beyond
While the ACT measures the skills and knowledge you have learned in high school, it is also an excellent way to gain more choice in your first-year class schedule, receive merit aid, and stand out from other applicants in the admissions process.
Should You Respond to the COVID-19 Question?
There is no doubt that COVID-19 has disrupted your high school experience and college plans in some way. For the 2022-23 admissions cycle, The Common App will continue to include this question on their application portal as an opportunity for you to elaborate on how the pandemic has affected your life.
The Latest on the Digital SAT
We’ve posted a lot lately about the College Board’s announcement of a fully digital SAT test format. In this post, we will break down the most recent round of updates on digital testing from a test preparation industry meeting with the College Board.
More Details Released About the Digital SAT
Today, a group of test prep professionals met with the College Board to learn more details about the digital SAT. Here’s what we learned.
Why the Digital SAT Matters Now
The College Board announced a plan to transform the paper-based SAT into a condensed, adaptive digital assessment. Here’s why today’s students should care.
Understanding Your PSAT Scores
For many high school juniors, the October PSAT/NMSQT was their first foray into standardized testing. Reading the recently released score reports can be close to as challenging as taking the test itself. If you’re wondering what your PSAT score report indicates or why the test is important in the first place, look no further. We’ve compiled a short list of insights to help you maximize your results.