Strategy, tips, and exam guides for the SAT, ACT, and APĀ® exams ā from a Barron's author with 20+ years of experience.
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer The AP® Biology exam tests how well you understand the way living systems actually work. Memorization alone will not get you there. The course is organized aroundā¦
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 periodsā¦
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 theā¦
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 can’tā¦
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 24ā¦
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, andā¦
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, butā¦
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. After 20+ years of tutoring, I see this gap constantly.ā¦
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 can skip it. But a handful of schools still require it in specific contexts, andā¦
By Brian Stewart, Barron’s SAT, ACT & PSAT Author & Perfect SAT/ACT Scorer Most students who struggle on the AP® Calculus AB exam don’t struggle because they skipped content. They struggle because they prepared for a different test than theā¦