magoosh blog | high school
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author: elliot hirsen

elliot hirsen
elliot works on magoosh’s products and curriculum making sure students have a great experience and get all the points they deserve. he’s a test prep pro with more than 10 years experience teaching, tutoring, developing courses, and writing explanations. elliot is a reformed rock climber bum who enjoys gardening, hiking, and pickin’ his guitar when he’s not working.

  • 10 tips for smooth-sailing on act test day

    1) use the answer choices on the act math test if you can’t figure out how to set up the algebra to solve, using an act math strategy like plugging in can definitely lead to better scores. use the answer choices to your advantage, trying each one out, by backsolving, then looking for the choice…

  • flaws make you real

    many college admissions committees ask you to write about your flaws. you may think this is a trap, but it’s actually a stealthy method of asking you to evaluate your personal growth. accepted is here with more on how to handle this tricky essay question. a speaker recently told a story about traveling in asia…

  • sat writing – conditional tense

    the conditional tense is rarely tested on the sat, and usually when it is, the answer jumps out at you because it just sounds weird. an easy way to think of the conditional tense is as the “if” tense. it describes something that hasn’t happened but that could happen. take a look: 1) if i…