I love For the Love of ACT Science. It shows you what to look for and why. And it's starts out easier and gets more complex.

I just checked the ACT website and it looks like the extended the late registration deadline by a week!

Tomorrow is the late registration for the April ACT. This is a great time to take the test before end-of-the-school-year madness sets in :-)

You can download 7 free official SAT practice tests directly from the college board Here are my favorite books for helping kids study for the SAT

I think it's worth it. (And usually all kids take it anyway since it's administered by the school) Even if he's not in NMS territory it's good practice for the SAT. It's a year later than his 10th scores - he's learned stuff in the mean time so his scores might change. And he'll be able to review his test and what he missed when they send out the score report around December.

Just a heads up. The late registration deadline for the March SAT is Tues, Feb 28. You can register for the SAT here. The registration deadline for the April ACT is Friday, March 3. You can register for the ACT here.

@Arcadia - The raw scores won't be comparable from test to test. But that's why they convert them to scaled scores. The scaled scores are comparable from one SAT test administration to another. Answering 45 questions right in Math on the October test might have translated into a 660 scaled score. Maybe the January test was a little easier so 45 right on that test translates into a 640 scaled score. The 640 vs the 660 scaled scores are comparable.

@Wapti Yes, each test has it's own scoring table to convert raw scores to scaled scores and they vary a little - I used the scoring chart from Practice Test 1 as an example. I completely agree that you need to investigate the colleges and scholarships you are interested in to find out what scores they want. I've found that to help kids as many right as possible, it can help to show them that they don't have to be perfect. Most kids aren't shooting for an 800. My niece is a perfect example. She's frantically racing through all the questions, determined to finish the section and not leave any blank. So she's rushing and missing all sorts of questions that normally she could have gotten right. On her last practice test she missed 10 of the last 11 questions. If she had just focused on 5 of them and gotten 2-3 right she would have scored more points. So I see it has more correct answers = better.

And to add to @LucytheValiant's point, there so many basic test-taking skills that also transfer between the two tests: -Show your work. DO NOT do stuff in your head -Read the question thoroughly to understand what they are asking for -Learn the balance between working quickly but not rushing and making sloppy mistakes -Endurance - Learn how to keep going even when your brain is tired and you don't want to

@Vida Winter I found this scoring table on the ACT website It shows how the ACT scaled score translates into a national percentile score. Magoosh has a spreadsheet converting raw scores to scaled scores here but I couldn't find anything like that on the official ACT pages (at a quick glance). (Sorry - not an ACT expert)

I was talking to a parent earlier today and realized that most parents aren't using the SAT scoring tables to strategically figure out how many questions their kids need to get right on the SAT. Most kids are relieved when they figure out they don't need to worry about getting ALL THE QUESTIONS correct. How many questions do I need to get right to get a “good†SAT score? I was talking to a parent today and realized, again, that there are a lot of misconceptions about what a good score is on the SAT. “Good†is relativeFor starters, a good score is whatever scores the colleges you are interested in are looking for. So, obviously, a “good†score at the local community college is not going to be Harvard’s idea of a “good†score. So the first step is to investigate the colleges that you are interested in and find out what sort of scores will put you in a competitive position. But you don’t need to be perfectBoth parents and students are surprised that you don’t need to get 90% right on the SAT to get a good score. Here’s an example from our local university. Seattle University: Average SAT math score is 600,and the 75th percentile score is 660. This means that 50% of their students have an SAT math score of 600, and 50% of their students have a math score above 600. The 75th percentile score means that the top 25% of students have a 660 or higher on the SAT Math. To get a score of 600 in Math, you need to get 38 questions right out of a total of 58 questions. ) That’s only 65% correct. You can skip or miss 20 questions and still get a 600 which is the SAT’s 73rd percentile. In other words, skipping or missing as much as 35% of the questions, still puts you in the top 27% of all college-bound kids taking the SAT (Note: this number varies a little by test. I’m using the Scoring Tables from the College Board’s Official SAT Practice Test 1 for this example and I excerpted one of the tables pictured at the top of this post.) If you answer just approximately three more questions correctly, you’d jump to a 630 which is the SAT’s 80th percentile. (Note: the College Board’s SAT percentile number tables can be found here. I did the math to figure out the percentage of correct answers.) To get a 660 in Math, you’d need to answer 45 questions correctly out of 58. So you could still miss or skip 7 questions and still be in the SAT’s 87th percentile. Take the pressure off studentsSo grab a scoring table and show students they can do a “C†job on the test by only getting 70% correct, but that can translate into an “A†or “B†score (depending on the school.)

@Coloradomomof5 - I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority b/c I don't think you should even be thinking about the SATs or ACTs until the end of 10th grade. The two tests are very similar but some kids really like one over the other. Whenever you are ready to start, you can download an SAT practice test and an ACT practice test and have your child take each one (they are 3 and 4 hour tests, so allow lots of time and time between the two tests) You'll be able to score them and get the kid's feedback on which one he or she preferred. The general feedback I hear from kids is mixed.Technically there's less time available per question on the ACT, but the science section freaks some kids out (even though it's not really "science" - it's just reading and interpreting charts and graphs). OTOH, the 65 min of SAT Reading in Section 1 of the SAT test can do some kids in - some kids feel the reading section in easier on the ACT. The SAT gives some math formulas at the beginning of the math section so you don't need to memorize ALL the formulas. But the ACT doesn't give you any formulas - that was a deal breaker for some kids. I think it depends on which test "feels" best to your kid (along with the objective data of how they performed on each test). The schools don't care either way.

Heads up for everyone. This Friday, Feb 10, is the last day to register for the March 11 SAT. Here's the link to register on the College Board website. Note: the March date is the only date where they DON'T offer SAT Subject tests.

Each test has it's own scoring table to convert the raw score to the scaled score. As @Arcadia said, all the tests, answers, and scoring tables are listed here at the College Board.

You can download 7 free authentic SATs tests directly from the College Board's website.

The College Board just released Official SAT Practice Test 7. This is the October 2016 test. They haven't yet posted it up (with the answer explanations or scoring tables) on their own website, but it's available on the Khan Academy For those us taking the January tests, it gives us one more chance to practice on new material before Saturday.

@Pistachio Mom - I've heard good things about this book: Stop Doing Math: Tips, Tricks and Strategies to find success on the most important math exams you will ever take. I've ordered it from our library to see what I think. It apparently talks about math approaches that work for any standardized test. They might help your daughter gain more confidence? _____________ I got the book today and I'm a fan! Lots of good advice, low-key tone, approaches math like a game, not a death march. Shows you how to "poke" the problem - think about it a little to see if there is a "shortcut" or a backdoor way to get the answer.

@mirabillis - There are no dumb questions! The only way to figure out what your dc is scoring already is to have them take an Official SAT Practice Test. Ideally, sitting at the kitchen table for 3 hours as they go through the whole thing. Or, more realistically if you're like most families, doing one section at a time in 30-60 min increments, and then scoring it using their scoring sheets and tables. I know that Kaplan and Princeton and all sorts of other SAT places, including all sorts of books, offer "SAT exams." But, up until 2016, they couldn't legally use the College Board official material, so they had to make up their own stuff, and it is - usually - bad - ranging from slightly bad to omg-that's-not-even-on-the-SAT-why-are-you-pretending-that-it-is bad. But now, with the College Board material freely available, I have no idea what other companies are doing. But, you'll want to stick with the ACTUAL materials published by the ACTUAL College Board folks. PSAT scores can give you an idea of how they are scoring. Though if they come in lower than expected, don't panic. For a lot of non-homeschooling kids, it's the first time they've seen that sort of test (I have no idea when homeschoolers show kids standardized tests) and they are sometimes woefully unprepared (strategy-wise) and their scores are artificially low. My conversation with my dear niece about her low PSAT scores: Me: Hmm..how much time did you spend on each question? Niece: Well, I wanted to make sure I answered all of them, because you don't get points off for wrong answers, so I could get it right even if I guessed, so I made sure to hustle and made sure I spent time on every one, even the ones I didn't know AT ALL, because, you-know, I COULD have gotten it right, because there's only 4 answer choices and so I have a 25% chance of getting it right! Me: Why didn't you spend more time on the ones you could have gotten right with a little more effort and no time at all on the ones you didn't have a clue about. You probably would have gotten more questions right, in the end. Niece: Really? You can do that? I thought I had to time it so I answered every single question, like the tests in school. My advice to parents is to completely ignore the SAT/ACT until summer after 10th grade. Up until then, most kids don't have the academic background or the maturity to handle a punishing 3 hour exam. (There are some exceptions - like the Duke TIP program - which I think pulls 7th graders? So, obviously, you want the kid to be familiar with the test and how it works before they hit it cold) But for the overwhelming majority of 9th and 10th graders - just go about your lives, working hard in your studies. No need to worry about the SAT/ACT :-)

I haven't researched the new essay yet. I liked PWNtheSAT's Essay Guide for the old test - though it looks like he hasn't yet updated it for the new test yet. My other two fav writing guides haven't yet been updated either. My kids are talking about this one: The College Panda's Guide to the SAT essay. It's written by a perfect-scorer. It's gotten good reviews on Amazon. It might fit the bill. (Note: I haven't laid eyes on it yet and can't verify if it's useful or appropriate.)(though it probably is)

@Pistachio mom - Don't use the College Board's Study Guide as a study guide - just use it for the 4 printed tests. (Or you can download 6 test for free from their websites)(Links are in the 1st post) I adore girls who aren't math people! I think Keller's book will be the best fit for her at the moment. Once she's confident there, then have her work on SAT practice tests. Let her know that there will always be problems she doesn't know how to do. Show her how to "skip" those (since you don't lose points for wrong answers, you should bubble in something - I choose "A" - on every question, even the ones that you don't look at or get to) WITHOUT losing confidence or getting intimidated. I don't work directly with kids on speed, unless they are rock-solid on the content (which is the pretty rare kid) I work on content mastery and strategy - speed (and confidence) is a byproduct of both. (here's a girl I worked with a couple of years ago) Work with her to research colleges she's interested in and look at their incoming SAT scores. Then you all can set a target score. You can look at the College Board's concordance tables (not that they make this easy - it's fairly convoluted, but you can still estimate) to estimate how many questions she needs to get correct in the math section to reach that score. Unless you are shooting for an 800, you SHOULD NOT be answering every math question (and, of course, you will actually "answer" every questions b/c you don't want to leave any blank.) But you don't want to pay attention to all the questions. You only need to answer 62% of the questions (that's 36 of 58 questions) correctly to get a 600 (which is the 73rd percentile ranked against other college bound kids). You need to answer 82% of the questions correctly (that's 48 of 58 questions) to get a 700 (which is the 92nd percentile). The point is - you can "skip" a lot. Most kids are HUGELY relieved to know that. Also - there's one other thing she can exploit about the math section. The questions TEND to go in difficulty order by mini section (so - easy to medium to hard. Then it starts over in the grid-in section - easy to medium to hard) They don't follow that exactly, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb. So, that means she can "ignore" that last handful of questions in each mini section. I think taking it slow and steady, like you're doing, is a great choice. My test-nervous kids need a long slow runway to practice on until they can do their best work. Good luck!

@Pistachio Mom - I'm not familiar with them. I looked at their "Effective Strategies to help you ace the ACT or SAT" 43 sec video on the front page under the "College Prep Genius Strategies' section about 1/2 way down the page. The example they use isn't an SAT question. (At least that question hasn't shown up on any SAT dating back to 2003) And it's not an SAT-type of question. (The College Board's SAT Study Guide for Students gives example questions from every part of the test - you'll be able to see the difference) The example they use in the second video "Strategies on how to ace the SAT" is much more like an SAT question. But her premise is the right answer contains all the pieces of the other answers in it. So, in 30 sec or less, find the answer choice than has elements of all the others in it. I fundamentally disagree with this approach. I teach a content-based approach. Not every question on the SAT can be solved in 30 seconds .(Spoken from 5 years of painful experience sitting in the room at 8 am on Saturday mornings taking the actual SAT under actual testing conditions.) I'm fast - but I'm not that fast :-) Even now there are plenty of math questions that I've never seen before and have to puzzle through. I sort-of agree with their larger point - there are "tricks" that can help you get to the answer more quickly. But the tricks work on top of deep subject matter expertise - call them "thinking tricks". By themselves, "tricks" won't get you very good scores. One of my favorite questions from the old test, was an absolute value questions about points on the number line. 3 of the points (u, w, v) were negative, 2 (x, y) were positive. (I don't know how to attach a photo of the problem - so here's a link to my blog post with the pic in it.) The question asked what is the value of |u-w|? It was a great question because kids got all involved in the number line part and completely forgot about the absolute value part. Well - if you know anything about absolute value, you know the only choices are going to be the positive values - x or y. And that "thinking trick" took me about 1 second. So now I just need to wrestle with 2 answer choices instead of 5. And even if I guess, I've got a 50/50 shot of getting it right, Other test strategy tricks - like backsolving, making up numbers with there are variables in the answer choices (which is just another flavor of backsolving), the short-hand way of finding slope, keeping your eyes open with they have negative numbers and cube roots - all work especially well when you already know what you're doing. Maybe other people have direct experience with this company? Or recommendations to other companies that worked well for them?

Yes - you can pinpoint what types of questions they're missing and use Erica's books to supplement on those skills.

@LisaK - You bring up a great point. I think of high test scores as a three-legged stool - content knowledge is only one leg. The other two are strategy and execution. When I sat down to take the new SAT, I missed 4 writing questions - and it wasn't because I don't know grammar. I was so used to the old test, that the new one caught me off guard. One sentence said something like "..facilitate melting snow and ice, limiting IT'S ability to reflect.." I immediately know it was the wrong it's in the "IT'S ability", so I chose "ITS" in the answer choices. What I didn't do was to check back and make sure it was the right pronoun in the first place. I didn't realize how much I had gotten to know the old test - I knew what they were going to ask about, how they would ask, what they wouldn't ask about.... So I need to get to know the flavor and tone of THIS test. And I assume that will be the same for kids as well - not that they are comparing to an old SAT, but that once you learn WHAT, and HOW it's tested, displaying your content knowledge becomes a whole lot easier

It's that time of year again - SAT time for juniors. I'm assembling resources for my niece and wanted to share what I think are the best SAT resources out there. (Among other things, I tutor kids on the SAT) 1. The Official SAT Practice Tests. The only real source of actual SATs. You can buy the book from Amazon for about $17. It has 4 tests in it. Or you can download (for free) and print out 6 tests from the College Board's (CB) website (which includes those 4 tests in the book plus 2 more.) Tests 5 and 6 were given last year so those are the most-like-the-real-thing. I have my kids practice on Test 1-4 and we save 5 and 6 for our final run-throughs closer to the actual test date. And there are full answer explanations for every question. Yay! 2. The Khan Academy They've partnered with the CB and have a lot of good study material and additional practice questions. It's not perfect - they tend to be nerd-heavy on the explanations - giving the "official" way, rather than an easier way to learn it. And, with the SAT, there are good strategies that Khan usually doesn't address - like backsolving. But - there's lots of good information for brushing up on concepts you haven't seen in a while. I'm pretty fanatical about only using official material. Most of the books on the market contain questions that *look* like SAT questions, but they miss the mark by being too simple or too complex, testing the wrong thing, or adding the wrong kind of extraneous info. I've read a ton of SAT books over the years and these are the ONLY ones I recommend - they are written by people who have worked through thousands of SAT questions and been through years of the tests, and have personally tutored hundreds (probably in the thousands by now) of kids studying for the SAT. All the expertise shows - their questions match the content, complexity level, tone and nuance of the SAT. ------------------------------------- MATH 3. The New Math SAT Game Plan OMG - my absolute most favorite SAT math book ever! There's a lot more Algebra 2 on this new SAT - and I had to learn all sort of stuff I had forgotten - parabola remainders? long division with variables? Phil is a long time high school math teacher (and he also teaches SAT math to kids) and he explains math in a way that the non-math among us can understand. (and that kids can turn into high scores) Love love love this book! 4. PWN the SAT This is another favorite. This is geared for kids already scoring in the 600s. It's HARD. It make the SAT look easy in comparison. Kids love this book b/c instead of boring "find the angle" questions, Mike's questions are things like calculating the ratio of donuts left after a zombie attack. Even though it's quite entertaining to work through, the concepts he's reinforcing are exactly what and how they are tested on the real test (minus the zombies) READING 5. The Critical Reader This book isn't easy to wade through - it's dense in the best way. Kids need to be scoring in the 600s if they want to tackle it on their own. (Kids with lower scores can work through it with help) Erica shows you exactly what's tested and teaches you the relevant skill. This is the only book that I've found that actually breaks apart the skill set and methodically teaches each part. WRITING 6. The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar Homeschoolers have a huge leg up with all the grammar that's on the new SAT so you might not need this resource. Since public schools have abandoned grammar, there's a whole generation of kids that can't find a subject, pronoun antecedent or a complete sentence. Erica breaks down each grammar point, and teaches what it is, how to recognize it and gives many examples and practice exercises. She's also got a companion workbook with 8 practice writing tests. ---------------------------- Hope these resources are helpful as you help your kids conquer the SAT! One other new thing this year - the CB has added an August test date - woo hoo!

Whoops - okay - I didn't know that was against the rules - I'll remove that part.