Guest post by Kimball Bullington, Ph.D.

When a new freshman enters college the question of how many hours to take is one that demands an immediate answer. Is there an ideal load? Should I take a light load to make the adjustment to college easier? Should I register for a heavy load and then drop the classes I don’t like?

The search for an ideal load for the beginning freshman begins with a look at the number of hours required to graduate. Divide the number of hours required to graduate by 8 to find the average number of hours you must take in order to graduate in four years without taking summer courses. For instance, if your school requires 120 hours that amounts to 30 hours per year or 15 hours per semester (120 / 8 = 15). The ideal beginning load would be the average number of hours to graduate in four years or slightly above average.

Isn’t it a good idea for beginning freshman to take less so as not to overload and give extra time for the adjustment to college? My...

ACT Prep Strategy:

I'm pretty sure you haven't heard fhis academic strategy before:

Give up!

Okay, there's a catch. Give up, strategically.

That's actually one of the tips that I've had for my ACT prep students for years, and I've had dozens of students come back to me and tell me that it really works!

Let me explain...

For most students, your target score on the ACT is not a 36, so your version of an "A" does not require tackling all of the questions! Instead, it's best to be strategic and selectively "give up" on certain questions/passages, so that you can bank the time to focus instead on the areas where you are stronger or just give you time to just slow down and have a better chance of getting things right.

This is especially true on the ACT math, which typically is increasing in difficulty as you go through the test. Of the 60 questions, questions around 41-50 are typically more difficult than the first 40 questions, and the last ten questions have some of the hardest...

One of the primary things I focus on as college prep consultant is to actually get families to stop focusing so much on college, and instead start focusing on career routes.

After all, you aren't raising your teen to be a college student, are you? You are raising them to be an adult! The goal is that they are prepared for a career path.

I've created a 4-week Career Prep Challenge, but really the process I take in there is what I would recommend for students regardless of whether they are in the challenge or not.

1. Take some personality/strengths tests

One thing this does is move the focus away from a negative (what a student doesn't know about their direction/future) to a positive (a student's natural strengths/gifts/abilities). This is motivating and encouraging, and also gives students the tools to articulate who they are better to a career professional down the road. In my challenge, I have several personality tests that I recommend (you can also check out my...

So how did I get here?

Well to start, this is not what I though I would be doing when I was in high school or college, though I still daily use the skills I acquired along the way.

I was homeschooled all the way through my high-school graduation, and was blessed to have an insider-track on college prep with a dad who was a college professor. This led to several steps that ultimately resulted in me getting paid to go to college:

1. I had a solid academic foundation

2. I had a clear picture of what career path I wanted to pursue

3. I knew the scholarship requirements early-on and set them as goals for myself in my test-prep

4. I was careful to meet the deadlines and make the right connections along the application process, and chose to go to an affordable school (even though I could have gotten into a higher-ranked college)

5. I didn't stop searching for scholarships once I got to college, but kept pursuing funding each semester

My second year of college I started tutoring...

At the time of posting it's June, and just a few weeks away from the July ACT exam date. Is your teen ready for the test?

Even though more schools have become test-optional, that still primarily just applies to admissions. There is a LOT is riding on the ACT or SAT when it comes to scholarships, so you want your teen to be prepared! So to get ready for the July exam I wanted to pull together some resources to help you make sure you can make the most of this test. You can also grab my FREE 10-page ACT Prep Guide here, or check out my online ACT Prep Course here.

Does the ACT or SAT Make More Sense for Your Teen?

When it comes to standardized exams, you have options! Should your teen take the ACT or SAT (the two most widely accepted tests)? You may have already decided on an exam, but if you haven't (or if your teen has struggled with the exam they've been working on so far) then you should check out our video and blog article that...

A lot is riding on the ACT, especially for homeschoolers where the test can often receive more weight than your GPA. Yet for students with special needs, there is an additional challenge of getting accommodations for the ACT without the assistance of a traditional guidance counselor. Here are the steps you need to go through:

1. Have the Correct Documentation

You will need a valid, current Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 Plan (504 Plan), or documentation that specifies a "professionally diagnosed physical or mental impairment that substanially limits one or more major life activities" and "requests allowable accomodations that are appropriate and reasonable for the documented disability" (from ACT guidelines, see here for full text).

If you do NOT have an IEP or 504 you will need to submit the ACT Exceptions Statement Form.

Accommodations are also typically provided if a student has past IEP or Section 504 Plan, even if expired, especially if the...

I was paid to go to college. Yep, at the beginning of each semester I received a check from the university as a reimbursement for scholarships I had received in excess of the cost of tuition. Between undergraduate and grad school I received over $500,000 in scholarships, grants, or assistantship awards or offers, and responding to questions about how I received so many scholarships is how I got started as a college prep consultant back in 2007.

It first helps to understand where the primary sources of scholarships are, so that you can create an intentional plan. Here are the four big sources of scholarships, and where to look for them.

Government Scholarships

While the Federal government does not offer any scholarships, your state government may offer some opportunities you should look into. These vary dramatically by state, but can comprise a substantial portion of the total scholarships available. In most cases, your application for the scholarships will include...

The next SAT exam is right around the corner. 

Your goal is to set yourself up for success. Here are some recommendations:

WEEK BEFORE TEST

In my online course I recommend that students not take any full-length tests the week of the exam. You don't want to mess with your mental readiness by getting a score that's lower than your target, so focus any prep work on just small sections. You can grade to see how many you got right/wrong, but don't convert to a 1600-point scale.

This is also a good time for you to review your prep notes, make flash cards, and update your strategies for each section.

If you have not been to the testing center before, drive by so you know the location and identify where you will park and where you will walk to so that you are taking away as many unknowns as possible. You want the test day to run as smoothly as possible so you can bring your best game, and surprises about testing center location, how far you have to walk, etc can throw...

I've heard the following questions SO many times! 

Do I really need to take algebra?

Why do I need to read that book?

Why am I required to study history? 

When am I ever going to use proofs?

Am I actually going to use chemistry?

This is a waste of time!

I get it. There are a bunch of subjects that are required for high school that, if you look from the outside, seem like they are completely unrelated to the direction we are headed. So why are they required? How can we motivate our teens to do their best in a subject when we can't name the last time we had to diagram a sentence or complete an algebraic equation?

You Don't Know Where You're Headed

I'm not doing what I thought I would be career-wise in high school. Statistically, neither will your teens. Right now the average person is holding 12+ jobs over the course of their life according to Zippia! The days of preparing for and staying in one career field for life have been replaced with a progression of...

Okay, so I know this may sound straightforward, but I frequently have students ask about how to register for the ACT®.

In some cases the ACT® is offered through your school (if you attend a public or private school). In these cases the ACT® date does not correlate with the typical 7 days a year the ACT is offered, and registration is usually completed by your guidance counselor.

If you are homeschooled or planning on taking a regularly scheduled ACT®, here is what you should do:

First off, you should ask the question should I register for this upcoming ACT® test date? I talk about choosing dates for the ACT here, so if you are unsure check out that post! You want to give some evaluation to whether you have time to adequately prepare for this test. I recommend 4+ weeks of active prep before each exam, preferably 8-16 weeks for your first test (check out my FREE 10-page ACT prep guide here or my online ACT prep course here).

Once you have decided that you...