Do some good, get some PWN.

My apartment is thankfully unscathed, but my city took a beating yesterday, and the town I grew up in is 100% without power. I hope, if you live in Sandy’s path, that you and your family are doing well. But of course, not everyone is, and some people have lost a whole lot. I will (more…)

Selling the Math Guide internationally

I get a lot of emails about this, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a post I could update as things develop. I’ll get back to posting challenge questions soon. 🙂 Since I published the Math Guide at the end of last year, I’ve been looking into ways to sell it (more…)

PWN the PSAT

I’ve been asked a few times lately about the PSAT/NMSQT, and I figured it might be helpful to put up a brief FAQ about it. So…here that is. 🙂 How are the PSAT and the SAT different? For one, the PSAT, at 5 sections, is much shorter than the grueling 10 section SAT. The PSAT (more…)

Summer-long Challenge – Video

As you might have noticed, I’m trying to give away books like crazy this summer. Here’s a contest for you creative types. 🙂 Your mission is to produce an educational video about the SAT. You may work alone, or in teams of up to three people. If I think your video is helpful, in the (more…)

I wrote something for Forbes.com

It’s an idea that I’ve had kicking around for a while, but that never really seemed appropriate to post on this site. Basically, I made a bunch of assumptions, did a few rough calculations, and tried to put a dollar value on SAT score improvements. I hope the post inspires some conversation about high-stakes testing, (more…)

Good luck tomorrow, friends.

I’ve been feeling pretty mushy lately about you guys. This blog started a little over a year ago because I was bored, and has grown into something that I’m really proud of and spend all day thinking about. I have you to thank for that. So thank you for continuing to come back to this (more…)

May SAT scores are in

May SAT scores are in today, and as is usual for a score day, site traffic is up. Sincerest congratulations to all who have achieved their goals—you have earned yourself a summer of doing something other than SAT prep. Try to stay mostly out of trouble. If you’re a bit disappointed today, keep your chin up. (more…)

The forest and the trees

As far as I’m concerned, the single most important difference between a good SAT taker and a truly adroit one is the ability to see the common threads that tie questions together. Pretty much everything you’ll find on this site was written to help you do that. That’s why, if you try my math drills (more…)

Make your own SAT

Source. I came across a great LinkedIn group discussion recently about an in-school SAT class (not a big prep company running a course at a school, an actual class during school run by school faculty) and it really got me thinking about ways I would try to engage students in the SAT in a classroom (more…)

Never say die (A last-minute SAT cram plan)

If you’re taking the SAT next weekend and you haven’t really started studying yet, you should know right now that you’ve not set yourself up for overwhelming success (or even regular-whelming success). Still, you’re not alone in your predicament, and Goonies never say “die.” I’m not going to say anything profound here, but I figured (more…)

Spread the pwnge

Things have been absolutely bonkers for me lately, a fact which has been deleterious to the frequency of posts on this site. Although I’ve been keeping up with the Q&A alright, long-form posts on this blog have taken a bit of a back seat. That probably bothers me more than it bothers you, but I’ve (more…)