Getting In and Beyond

AP exams are approaching, whether you like or not. As someone who likes to call herself a seasoned AP test-taker (I took five exams in the two-week exam schedule last year alone), I have some helpful tips that managed to get me some pretty decent scores on the exams: 1. Sleep. You've heard it again and again, but sleep does actually. Try to adjust to a healthy sleep schedule (I'm talking at least seven hours a night) a couple of days before your first AP exam, and maintain that sleep schedule until your last one. Your classes will tend to go lax on the workload, so you'll have less things to do anyway besides studying for your exams. This will mean you'll have a lot of time to sleep, so get your hours of rest! 2. Have a test-taking kit made. That includes No. 2 pencils (sharpened), an effective eraser, test-appropriate pens (for free-response sections), a calculator (when allowed), a snack, and water. Depending on the room you're taking the exam, you might als...

If you're fortunate enough to visit a college, you'll probably want to maximize the time you spend there. Here are tips on how to make the most of such a visit. 1. Have a clear plan about what you're going to do there. You're investing already quite a lot of time visiting. Most likely you're not the only one visiting (as in you're probably accompanied by your parents), so take some time (I'm not even suggesting you spend a whole day) to learn things about the college you're visiting. For example, if you're aiming for a specific field of interest, have questions ready about the field of study you're interested in when you visit. The worst thing you could do during a college visit is not engage with the people that you encounter during a visit, so don't be afraid to ask questions. 2. Have some sort of record of your visit. I'm not saying you have to write a journal, but you probably shouldn't depend on your brain to remember every...

Don't be the person that finds themselves in the beginning of senior year without any sense of what they want to do in college, or even worse: not knowing where to apply and how to go about it. The process for college applications starts earlier than your senior year (like, way earlier), so here are some helpful tips for tackling junior year in regards to the college application process. 1. Take the SAT or ACT Seriously, get this done!!! You DO NOT want to be worrying about standardized testing the summer before your senior year and certainly not when you're in the middle of college apps. Unfortunately, it's tough to really take it super seriously now, but it pays off. For some selective schools (you'll need to do some research on this), the admissions counselors are also looking to see you perform well on certain SAT Subject Tests, which requires special preparation. 2. Talk to teachers about recommendation letters. You obviously shouldn't do this u...