College application essays tend to make everyone fearful and hesitant. What do you write about? What should you write about? Are there things schools want to hear? When these questions come to mind, embrace the fear and use it to write memorable essays that make you stand out. Stop worrying and get writing. Whether we like […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Correlating Conjunctions
Some ACT and SAT questions may test your knowledge of correlating conjunctions, which are pairs of coordinating conjunctions: either…or neither…nor both…and not only…but also not…but whether…or as…as When these words are acting as conjunctions, they must be with their proper partner, which is why both the ACT and SAT will try to trip you up […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Beware of Them (and They)!
Implied pronouns–those that do not have an antecedent in the sentence nor in a preceding sentence–are difficult to spot in writing because they are so prevalent in our speech. Do you know how to spot errors with “they” and “them”? If not, read on, because you are sure to encounter such errors on your ACT […]
ACT English and SAT Writing Tips: Who’s Worrying About Apostrophes?
Apostrophes have two uses on the ACT and SAT: 1. To form possessive nouns. 2. To replace missing letters in contractions. Let’s examine these two situations–as well as when to avoid apostrophes–in this week’s blog.
ACT and SAT Test Tips: “I have” vs. “I want to”
I may be long past my college admissions days, but I still have hurdles to leap and hoops to jump through (yep, sorry to break it to you, but life doesn’t get any easier after high school. Well, after college anyway. Those four years post-high school were pretty great). I was watching a motivational video […]
5 Recommendations for Your College Application Essays
After your SAT and ACT scores and your GPA, your essays are the most important part of your college application. Why? Because they are the only part of your whole file that encompasses you and your personality entirely. Your essays let schools see how you think, what you find important, how you write, and how […]
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 English and SAT Writing Tips: Adjectives and Adverbs
I was sitting in the car line at my kids’ school yesterday when an old song from middle school came on the radio. “Waiting for a Star to Fall” by Boy Meets Girl. I know you’ve never heard it. It’s OLD. I get it. But I’m going to tell you about it anyway because it […]
Admission Tips: Four Pointers for Your College Application Résumé
There are a lot of items you will need to procure or create when putting together your college applications: transcripts, teacher recommendations, and essays, to name a few. You may also have to put together and submit a résumé. Given that most high schoolers have never had to put together a résumé for anything other […]