Why “Using Your Ear” on Verbal Questions is a Bad Idea

SAT/ACT, SAT/ACT Verbal

Most people take a rather informal, intuitive approach to verbal questions. This is often described as “using your ear”: simply reading the answer choices and trying them out in your mind’s ear, seeing which one sounds best. And here, dear reader,...

The Hard Way: Math on the New Digital SAT

SAT/ACT, SAT/ACT Math/Science

The College Board rolled out the new Digital SAT in the United States in March of this year; the next administration is right around the corner at the beginning of October. Putting together what we’ve seen on the new practice tests and what we’ve heard...

SAT and ACT Strategy: Function Words and Reading with Precision

SAT/ACT, SAT/ACT Verbal

In this post, we’ll be digging into some of the science of language as it applies to verbal questions. Our examples are drawn from official practice questions released by the College Board for the new Digital SAT, but the issues discussed here apply equally to...

Taking the ACT: Reflections of an ACT Tutor

SAT/ACT, SAT/ACT General

As part of maintaining expertise and gaining insight into what our students experience, I went to a local high school and took an official ACT on October 28. In this post, I’d like to share some thoughts about the experience. Some Personal Notes on the...

Understanding the Adaptive Scoring Algorithm of the Digital SAT

SAT/ACT, SAT/ACT General

In the name of science, we went to the source and tinkered with the new Digital SAT practice tests released by the College Board. Our goal was to find out exactly what’s going on under the hood to determine scoring on this new test. In this post, we’ll lay...