Strategy, tips, and exam guides for the SAT, ACT, and AP® exams — from a Barron's author with 20+ years of experience.
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer AP® English Language and Composition is one of the most widely taken AP exams — and one of the most misunderstood. Students often arrive thinking it is…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer The AP® Biology exam is less about memorizing isolated facts and more about understanding how living systems actually work. The course is organized around four Big Ideas…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer The AP® US History exam is less about memorizing isolated facts and more about understanding major developments across time. The course is organized into nine historical periods…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer AP® African American Studies is an interdisciplinary course that moves from the societies of early Africa through the transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer AP® World History: Modern covers more than 750 years of global change — from the Song Dynasty and the Silk Roads to globalization and climate change. You…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer The redesigned AP® Psychology course is built around five units, covering everything from neurons to psychological disorders. Below are 120 essential terms organized by unit (roughly 24…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer AP® Psychology has one of the more favorable score distributions among AP exams. In 2025, nearly half of all test-takers earned a 4 or a 5, and…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer Most students preparing for the AP® African American Studies exam focus almost entirely on content — memorizing names, dates, and events across the four units. That’s understandable, but it…
The ACT gives you no formula sheet. Every formula you need — from the quadratic formula to the Law of Cosines — has to be in your head before you sit down. That's a problem for a lot of students,…
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer The ACT Science section is now optional — and at most colleges, you are free to skip it. But a handful of schools do require it in…