As a tutor, I’ve spent a substantial amount of time (read: many, many hours over a twenty-year period) helping students prepare for standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. Frankly, it’s not my favorite thing to teach, partly because it’s inevitably less challenging, dynamic, and creatively engaging than things like poetry and writing, and partly because students tend to view test preparation as a chore. However, the fact remains that it’s something that all students have to deal with, and it does provide an opportunity to develop important fundamental skills such as critical reading, good grammar, and essay writing. (And truth be told, the nerd in me does enjoy these things.)

So my latest project for Camilla’s English Page has been updating and expanding the site’s test preparation information and resources, which have never been a major focus of the site. Here are the pages I’ve recently updated or created:

On these pages you’ll find an introduction to the format, content, and scoring of these tests, along with an extensive list of resources to help students understand, register for, and prepare for the tests.

Since my opinion has always been that it’s best to use official test questions to prepare for standardized tests, I can’t post my test preparation materials directly to this site. But I have included links to all of the publicly available official test prep materials for these tests. These and older but still relevant materials are the basis for my test prep lessons.

Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions regarding these pages. To any students reading this, good luck!