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News, Insights, & Study Tips
How to Interpret your PSAT Score Report
The College Board provides a sample PSAT score report, which is a helpful way to become familiar with the different components of your score. Each report begins with a cover page, including the student’s name, high school, and other identifying information. But the second page is where the real information begins..
Digital SAT Practice Tests Now Live
College Board releases practice exams for the new test format, showcases onscreen test-taking tools, including a Desmos calculator.
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.
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.
Demystifying the National Merit Scholarship Process
After a year of distance learning and cancelled tests, even the words “National Merit” might intimidate. We’re here to simplify the process.
How (and Why) You Should Prepare for the PSAT
October is famous among US teenagers for two things: Halloween and PSAT memes. (Humblebrag: one of my students once blocked @CollegeBoard on Twitter.) Since I’m legally prohibited from taking the PSAT and I absolutely cannot comprehend what a “shrimp ex-husband” could be, this post cannot contribute anything further to the important national conversation around PSAT memes. Instead, get ready for a journey into the inner machinations of the PSAT itself.
How to Navigate ACT Reading’s New VQI Questions
In a surreptitious change, ACT has updated their description of the Reading test to include a short blurb about “Visual and Quantitative Information” questions in that section of the exam. The “new” question types will appear on test booklets during National Testing dates beginning this year, and will contribute to students’ scores in the Information and Knowledge of Ideas reporting category.
Strategies for the Computer-Based SAT and ACT
The College Board and ACT are rolling out computer-based versions of their exams for all US students. Mastering the digital tools they provide will be the key to success on these online tests.
Test-Optional FAQs: Is it worth taking the SAT or ACT?
As a majority of universities implement test-optional policies for this year’s admissions cycle, students have been asking us whether it’s worth it to take the SAT or ACT. Our expert tutors weighed in on the most common questions we’ve received from parents and students this fall.
Your PSAT Options in 2020-2021
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, most local schools canceled the PSAT, which is typically offered to all sophomores and juniors during a school day in the fall semester. The good news is that your student can still access the benefits of the PSAT.
What to Do if Your SAT or ACT is Canceled
Instead of canceling tests en masse, as it did with the May and June SATs, the College Board is now allowing individual testing centers to determine whether or not they’ll hold the tests as planned. Many sites have already canceled the November 7 test. So if you’re registered for an upcoming SAT, be sure to check the College Board’s website for updates.
How to Prep for the Online ACT
In response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide test-site closures, testing agencies are being forced to adapt to a new and ever-changing landscape, including offering new formats of the tests.
However, for ACT the shift to online standardized testing has been in the works for some time now—the ACT has been offering online testing domestically for district- and statewide school-day tests since 2016, and in international test centers since 2018. However, as of September 2020, they will finally expand this option to include national test dates across the United States.
A Conversation With Olympic Runner Kate Grace
As an elite athlete working towards the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Kate Grace is the embodiment of growth mentality. Kate recently spoke to the Yale Club of Oregon on “Practicing Excellence: Mastering Mind and Body on the Road to the Olympics.” We saw parallels between her training, college admissions, and SAT or ACT test prep, so we asked her to sit down with us and share more about her dedication to continued improvement.
College Board Will Postpone At-Home SAT
Amid concerns over security and access, the organization backed down from plans to offer an at-home digital version of SAT this fall.
June ACT Cancellations Create Frustration, Confusion
With two-thirds of testing centers closed for the June 13th ACT, students look to July and beyond.
The Cost of (Test-Optional) College
As more schools announce test-optional policies, submission of SAT and ACT scores is still frequently required to receive merit aid.
Testing Updates in Response to COVID-19
A roundup of admissions news and test-related changes, updated regularly.
Test-Optional Comes to Oregon
With all public universities in the state adopting a new test-optional admissions policy, students and families need to understand the implications.
SAT, ACT, and IB Canceled; At-Home Testing for AP and GRE
As testing organizations respond to Covid-19 containment measures, it’s key for students to understand their options.