Wake County public high school juniors will take a free, in-school ACT on Feb. 20. Here are tips to help them prepare.

One step that occurs early in the daunting college admissions process is deciding whether a student should take the SAT, ACT, or both. Colleges don’t prefer one over the other. In our experience, most students are better off picking one test and then taking it up to three times. With super scoring, a student’s highest section score among all tries is used, which encourages students to take these tests more than once. With the launch of the new SAT this past spring, the differences be...

1. Practice, practice, and practice.This may seem rather obvious, but practice is perhaps the most important key to success on the SAT and the ACT. We suggest taking a practice test that simulates the actual test conditions. Take a full-length test in a quiet space under timed conditions. Score your test, and read the explanations for the questions that you missed. Identify in which areas you are weakest, and study content and strategies in those areas. Continue to expose yourself to lots of pra...