When I was little, stories have it that I never stopped asking questions. Sometimes, these were the standard inquiries of a three-year-old, such as “WHY do I have to wear mittens.” According to my mother, however, they usually went beyond the normal, into more murky territory, such as, “What would happen if they just never cut an umbilical cord and a baby was attached forever?” She never found an answer…

Whenever we begin working with students on SAT or ACT preparation, we inevitably encounter a series of common misconceptions about standardized tests. Some of our favorites over the years have been that you should never test in January because it’s always the hardest one, the test includes concepts you’ve never learned before, and that the only students who earn perfect scores are complete geniuses. None of these are true of…