“Don’t give me that attitude, young lady!” my mom used to yell when I rolled my eyes at something she said. The something she said was usually a jab aimed at my hair. She hated my bangs even though they added a full five inches to my height. It was the late 80s, and big bangs […]
NCAA Basketball Bracket: The Most Affordable College
Oh, man, the flu has hit my family. As a result, I didn’t get to bed last night until 4 am. I missed work today. But I couldn’t miss out on this. I am so tired, though, that I didn’t even have the energy to put commas in the dollar figures for each of these […]
NCAA Basketball Bracket: Largest Number of Undergrads
After my Spartans were forced yesterday to recognize Duke as national champion once again (in a bracket of head-to-head ACT and SAT scores), I wondered if there was a way to compare colleges and have MSU come out on top–or at least advance farther than Duke. Surely Michigan State has more undergraduate students than Duke, […]
NCAA Basketball Bracket: The Winners by ACT and SAT Scores
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holidays. Nor spring. And no, not even St. Patrick’s Day, the only day of the year that non-Spartans are likely to yell “Go Green!” back at me. It’s better than all of those combined. IT’S MARCH MADNESS, BABY! Said in my best Dickie V. voice, […]
ACT and SAT Tips: Ten Minute Test Prep
If you’re like most high school students, there isn’t a lot of downtime in your day, let alone time to study for something other than your normal homework. Yet the ACT and SAT loom in your future, and you keep hearing about how you need to start studying for them months—maybe even years—in advance. How […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Maintaining Style
Keeping up with current fashion trends isn’t the only type of style you must maintain–you also have to make sure that an author preserves his or her style in the ACT English and SAT Writing sections. Style on the ACT and SAT? We’re not talking Louis Vuitton shoes for guys and Louboutin purses for girls, […]
ACT and SAT Math Tips: Polygons and Their Interior Angles
Geometry has been relegated to only 10% of the SAT but it still composes 15% to 20% of the ACT. You may need to know the sum of the interior angle measurements of regular polygons on both tests, but no formulas are provided on either. So how should you prepare for these types of questions? […]
ACT and SAT Reading Tips: Paired Passages with Opposing Viewpoints
Each ACT and SAT Reading section includes a set of paired passages, which discuss a related topic, with 10 or 11 accompanying questions. Most of these paired sets have passages with opposing viewpoints. One author may support animal cloning while the other opposes it. Or one passage cites obesity as the reason for apathy, while the […]
How to Create an ACT or SAT Study Bible
Countless studies have been dedicated to the practice of note-taking, and experts agree: taking notes and reviewing them frequently helps students transfer new information from their short-term memories to their long-term memories. And while students instinctively take notes in biology class and during their history lectures, they often show up to our ACT classes without […]
ACT and SAT Reading Tips: U-Turn Words
In ACT and SAT reading passages, pivotal words are those that guide a reader through an author’s ideas. They are “direction” words, telling you you which way to go in your thought process. Spotting these words throughout a passage can help you determine the author’s attitude and opinion concerning the main idea, which will ultimately […]