The ACT opens with a Literary Narrative, usually fiction, and it trips up strong students who read it like a plot summary or try to gain perfect understanding BEFORE diving in to the questions. Along those same lines, many SAT passages come from 19th century fiction, with words, titles, and concepts we don't think about very often (if at all). When you encounter a fiction passage on your test, remember one thing: Fiction on this test is not about what happened. It is about who these people are and how they feel. Read for character and relationship. Who wants what, who is tense with whom, how the mood shifts. And once you find those things, leave yourself clues on the document! Highlight, underline, annotate, whatever is necessary. Most questions ask what is implied about a character or the tone of a moment, not the literal events. When a question asks how a character feels, the answer is almost never stated outright. The clearest answers are built from their actions, their word choice, and what goes unsaid. YOUR MOVE Read one short story this week and, for each character, write one sentence on what they want and how they feel, using clues only, not stated facts. Read wide, read deep, read on. Mr. Brown

Word problems are not a different kind of math. They are just regular math wearing a disguise. The best way to figure out ANY word problem is to translate, phrase by phrase, before you solve anything. A quick dictionary: "is" means equals, "of" means multiply, "per" or "for each" means a rate, and "more than" means add in most situations, unless you are talking about a percentage more than. So "Nadia earns 15 dollars per hour" becomes 15h, and "8 less than twice a number" becomes 2n minus 8. Key difference, especially on the SAT: "50 percent of 100" means something different than "50 percent more than 100." Make sure you know this distinction! Write down what your variable stands for in plain words first. Most word problem misses come from solving the right equation for the wrong thing. Coach's Move Take one word problem and translate it line by line into symbols before solving. Define every variable in writing. Numbers don't lie. Neither does practice. Mr. Brown

Apostrophes do just two jobs. They show possession, as in "Aisha's notebook," or they stand in for missing letters in a contraction, as in "don't" for do not. They almost never make a word plural. The trap pairs the tests love: its and it's, your and you're, whose and who's, and theirs and there's, which takes no apostrophe at all. The trick is that pronouns do not use apostrophes to show possession. "Paul's new shoes" becomes "His new shoes." And if you can expand it to "it is," write "it's." If you cannot, use "its." Your Move Test every "its" and "it's" (NEVER its') against "it is" this week. And remember, plurals like "the 1990s" or "two cats" get no apostrophe. Write it tight, write it right. Mr. Brown

A little pressure-release valve for you. You do not have to be perfect this week. You just have to keep moving. A lot of students quietly quit the second they miss a day. They think, "Well, I broke The Streak, so what is the point?" and one missed day becomes five. Do not fall for it. Missing a day is not failure, it is just a day. The only real failure is letting one skip talk you into skipping the rest. Aim for progress you can actually sustain. Messy and consistent beats flawless and fragile every time. YOUR ONE JOB THIS WEEK If you miss a day this week, get back on it the very next one. No guilt spiral, no drama. Just pick it back up again. Decide once. Show up daily. Let's get after it. Mr. Brown

Six rules sit at the top of this room. They are short on purpose. Here is what each one actually means, and why it is there. Why it is called The Rep Room Because scores come from reps. Not from being naturally good at tests, not from a trick somebody's cousin knows, and not from one heroic weekend of cramming. From reps, done honestly, over weeks. That is the whole theory of this place. Everything below follows from it. 1. Everybody Starts at Rep One Nobody in here started ahead of you. You will never be asked to post a score you are not proud of. Not to join, not to ask a question, not for anything. If you want to share a number because it helps you, go ahead. If you never do, you get exactly the same help. The only number that matters in here is the distance between where you are and where you want to be. That distance is yours. This is not a leaderboard. 2. Show Your Reps, Then Ask This is not a toll you pay before I will help you. It is that the second version of a question gets a far better answer than the first. "I don't get commas" gets you a comma lesson you have probably already sat through. "I picked B because I thought both sides were complete sentences, and it was wrong" gets you the actual thing you are missing, usually in one line. You do not have to be right. You have to show me where you went. 3. Every Rep Comes From Practice Nothing from a real test. Ever. I know exactly how this temptation works, because I still sit for the ACT myself. You walk out on a Saturday, one question is rattling around your head, and you want to know. That is a completely normal thing to want. Post it anyway and we both have a problem. You agreed to test security rules when you registered, and I would like to keep doing this for a living. So bring me the practice question that works the same way, and I will answer that one all day. 4. All Reps Count the Same Nobody's number gets laughed at in here. Not out loud, not in a comment, not sideways.