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  • Two Types of Tricky ACT Science Questions

    Most ACT Science passages end with a pair of especially challenging questions. One of these questions will be legitimately difficult to solve. The other question, however, will be designed to appear much tougher than it […]

     
  • The ACT vs. the SAT: An Updated Guide to Choosing the Right Test for You

    For this week’s lesson, we’re going to update our “ACT vs. SAT” guide. Last year’s edition of this guide compared the ACT to the then newly-redesigned SAT. Since that time the “new” SAT has become […]

     
  • What Ambiguous-Sounding SAT and ACT Verbal Questions Words Really Mean

    The SAT and ACT are standardized tests, meaning they can have only one correct answer for each multiple choice question. As we’ve talked about in the past, however, both exams like to use ambiguous-sounding language […]

     
  • What Students Like and Dislike about the New SAT

    For this week’s lesson, we’re going to do something a little bit different: discuss what our students think of the new SAT format. The redesigned SAT has been in use for a year and a […]

     
  • The Most Common Mistake on Each Section of the ACT

    Here at the Learning Island we’ve talked extensively about how the ACT and SAT are “fun house mirrors” of high school subjects. Test sections follow their own specific logic that often flies in the face […]

     
  • ACT Prep: Which section should I start with?

    In a previous lesson we discussed the pros and cons of beginning to study for the SAT with each of the three test subjects: Reading, Writing and Language, and Math. This week we are going […]

     
  • What to do when you are stumped by an ACT or SAT question

    What to do when you are stumped by an ACT or SAT question

    No matter how thoroughly you prepare for the ACT or SAT, there will probably be a handful of questions that will totally stump you. In this lesson, we’re going to cover what do when you […]

     
  • Advice for Choosing ACT and SAT Study Guides

    Advice for Choosing ACT and SAT Study Guides

     
  • Improve Your SAT scores!

    The Top 5 Counterintuitive Grammar Rules on the ACT and SAT

    English has quite a few grammar rules that seem to fly in the face of common sense. The ACT and SAT test designers are acutely aware of how confusing certain English grammar rules can be […]

     
  • PSAT vs. SAT

    PSAT vs. SAT

    With the October 2017 PSAT around the corner, now is the perfect time to revisit the differences between the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) and the full SAT. We covered the differences between […]