Junior year moves fast. Most students do best with around 20 hours of focused prep, a three-test plan, and a timeline that fits around APs and real life rather than competing with them. This month-by-month guide answers the question families ask us most: when should we actually start?

Choosing the wrong test wastes months of prep time. This guide breaks down the real differences between the SAT and ACT in 2026-2027, including recent changes to both tests, and walks you through a short quiz to figure out which one fits your student.

Your student is already scoring in the 1300s or 1400s. They studied, they improved, and now they have hit a wall. Here is why the last 100 points on the SAT are the hardest to earn and what elite preparation actually looks like, including how one Long Island junior reached a 1500 superscore in six weeks.

Junior year is the most important year for SAT and ACT testing, and the timeline matters more than most families realize. Here's how to build a prep plan that fits a packed schedule and still delivers results.

Junior year is the last full year colleges will see before applications go in, and winter break is the breathing room to get ahead before second semester picks up. Use it to reset academics, lock in a test plan, and start a college list that makes February and April campus visits actually count.

SAT and ACT math leans heavily on Algebra 2 content, which means smart prep can lift test scores and classroom grades at the same time. Here is how to time test prep around when your student takes Algebra 2, whether that's 9th, 10th, or 11th grade.

Most students dream of a 1400+ SAT, but very few make the leap, and fewer still pull it off in under a year. Here is how one rising senior aiming at engineering programs went from an 1100 baseline to a 1480 by combining Wagner Prep's 8-week SAT Course with 19 hours of one on one tutoring.

Junior year is when testing starts to mean something, and fall is the right window to get a baseline score on the books. The good news is that smart prep does not require dropping APs or quitting the soccer team. Here is how to plan around a packed schedule and still walk into test day prepared.

Sofia started junior year with a 1170 diagnostic SAT and a packed schedule of tennis, mock trial, and track. Eight months and more than 50 hours of one on one tutoring later, she was scoring in the 1500s on practice tests and walked into the real exam with a 1530. Here is what got her there.

UPenn just announced it is requiring the SAT or ACT again, becoming the sixth Ivy League school to drop test-optional policy. Seven of the top ten universities now require scores, and the data shows applications go up, not down, when schools make this change. Here is what it means for current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors planning their test timeline.