I gave my eight year-old daughter a practice problem from a critical reading practice section of an SAT out of morbid curiosity. It was a vocab in context question, which she promptly answered correctly in under a minute. I bring...

Essential Parenting Tasks for a Healthy College Transition I’ve written previously in this column that every college freshman has mental health needs. While your role as a parent is changing during this period, too, it isn’t ending. There are crucial...

First Choice: Peterson’s SAT Prep Book 2020 Series: Peterson’s SAT Prep Guide Paperback: 840 pages Publisher: Peterson’s; 20 edition (April 28, 2020) Language: English ISBN-10: 0768944007 ISBN-13: 978-0768944006 Second Choice: SAT Prep Black Book (CONTAINS SUBJECT TEST PREP, TOO) Paperback: 576 pages Publisher: ACT Prep Books; 2 edition...

Like many others I’d imagine, I’ve been watching the recent protests with much compassion. Coming from a background of white privilege, I don’t feel like I can say much about it, so I will leave it at this: the BLM...

Anecdote to set up the big moment: Okay, I’m going to go ahead and date myself here. (I’m bald, so there’s really no hiding my age, anyway, especially in the summer, but I digress.) Let me educate you on the...

Helpful Tip: For top performance on a three hour test, sleep during the several days to a week beforehand is critical for top scores. The nights preceding the night before the test are, in fact, just as important to cognitive...

HELPFUL TIP: How many times have you worked through a problem for more time than you probably should only to put down the answer for X in the wrong units, or forgotten a negative sign that threw off the answer,...

HELPFUL TIP: This applies particularly to the SAT, which is notorious for “trap answers,” the ACT to lesser degree. On certain question types, it is wise to cover the answer choices (literally, like with your hand!) and predict the answer,...

HELPFUL TIP: Slow yourself down a bit and make sure you understand what the question is asking you. Is it asking for meters or cubic meters? Is it asking for X or X+Y? Is it asking which sentence to eliminate...

HELPFUL TIP: Standardized tests are as much a test of mental endurance as they are of the quadratic formula or punctuation. Push yourself to take the three hours on a Saturday, Sunday, or over a break (say from the Coronovirus!)...