Academic Resources and Study Guides

  • SAT and ACT

    Digital SAT

    College Board Question Bank
    Hundreds of questions, and you can generate your own practice worksheets, with or without answers. Great for timed and untimed practice.

    Pro tip: One downside is that the explanations can be EXTREMELY long-winded and often confusing, especially in math. If you’re confused, look online for other approaches to the question — just type the first few words into Google. Decent chance you’ll be able to find it.

    College Board Practice Tests
    There are 6 available. The score reports are unfortunately not very comprehensive and the explanations are awful, but as these are written by the official test writers, it’s a good resource.

    Khan Academy free SAT prep course

    Selected Strategy Guides (not affiliated with College Board)

    Kaplan SAT Prep Plus

    Princeton Review SAT Premium Prep

    College Panda (SAT and ACT Verbal and Math Guides)

    Other Resources

    Old College Board Practice Tests
    The format has changed, but there’s sill some worthwhile practice, especially in the math sections.

    Pro Tip: While Desmos is allowed on the Digital SAT, it can be useful to do some of your practice without a calculator in order to practice identifying concepts quickly. Section 3 of the old (paper-based) SAT was designed to be taken without a calculator, and can help you develop an eye for core concepts.

    Critical Reader Online Grammar Guide
    You may have heard of Erica Meltzer — she’s a well known publisher of SAT and ACT materials for reading and writing. She has a number of books available, but this is an excellent—and short—online resource.

    Pro tip: Grammar has been somewhat de-emphasized on the digital SAT — it’s still important, but there is no longer a dedicated section. Focus on clauses, transitions, and punctuation. On the ACT, Section 1 is still heavy on grammar.

    “High Frequency” Vocabulary List
    Vocabulary is tested on both the SAT and ACT, but not heavily (gone are the days when you needed to memorize thousands of words — although it was great for vocabulary building!) That said, vocabulary still appears, but don’t spend too much time on it. Here’s an excellent list of 262 words worth knowing complete with sentences for context.

  • Tutoring Resources in Newton, Brookline, Boston, and vicinity

    Local Facebook Groups:

    Newton Tutoring Group
    private group for parents, students, and tutors in the Newton area

    Newton, Brookline, Wellesley tutoring group private group for parents, students, tutors

    MA Parents seeking Pods, Teachers, Tutors private group for parents and tutors

    Beantown Scholars
    new private group geared toward secondary and post-secondary education. (I am the co-admin of this group, along with two other area tutors)

    SAT/ACT Tutor Group
    (Tutors and resources for SAT and ACT exams)

    Tutoring Services in Boston
    (public group for Boston area tutors)

    Websites

    Wyzant
    (Excellent resource for those seeking tutors, academic coaches, college/grad school counselors, etc)

    NextDoor
    (neighborhood-focused site that can be a great resource for academic help within your community)

    Care
    (caregiver-oriented site with a list of affordable tutors)goes here

  • GRE and GMAT

    Online Resources

    GRE Prep Club (comprehensive resource with thousands of practice questions and discussion)

    GMAT Club Question Banks (comprehensive resource with thousands of practice questions and discussion

    Official GRE Practice Tests
    2 free tests available from ETS, additional ones available for purchase.

    Pro Tip: the ETS website is awful. It is what it is, but I definitely recommend consulting other resources for further discussion about specific test questions. It’s also be a good idea to take a non-ETS diagnostic test early in your studying to get a comprehensive score report and analysis of where you need work. ETS will NOT provide this.

    Link to (free!) official and unofficial GRE Practice Tests
    (recently updated link from the folks at GMAT Club—yes they have some GRE content too, and the fellow who manages these sites is great)

    Link to (free!) official and unofficial GMAT Focus practice tests

  • Math Resources

    Math-Aids.com
    (Generate on-the-fly math worksheets — from Kindergarten through Calculus!)

    Kuta Software
    Great series of free math worksheets for all levels