Should You Take the ACT or the SAT

Should You Take the ACT or the SAT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you're in high school, you may be wondering whether you should take the SAT or the ACT. In general, the two tests have gotten much more similarsince the SAT was revamped in 2016,but there are still a few differences that may sway you towards one or the other. In this guide, I've outlined some of the key factors you should keep in mind when deciding which test to focus on and created a quiz that can help you determine which test will be better for you. The first thing you should do is take anACTandSAT practice testand compare your scores. We have a conversion table where you can easily see how your SAT and ACT scores stack up. If you score much higher on one test than the other, I recommend that you study for and take the test you did better on. If your scores are pretty close and you're still not sure which exam to take, keep reading. Next, I recommend checkingwhether one exam or the other is required at your school. It's easier to study for a test you're already familiar with, so if your school requires either the ACT or the SAT, you'll want to seriously consider sticking to the requiredtest. Now, let's move on to the key reasons you might want to go with each test, starting with the SAT. Feature Image: jimflix!/Flickr Take the SAT If You... #1: Panic When Faced With Time Limits One of the most noticeable differences between the redesigned SAT and the ACT is the amount of time per question- you have much more of it on the SAT. This doesn't actually make the SAT easier,since its actual questions tend to be harder, but it does mean thatthe ACT feels like more of a time crunch than the SAT. As such, doing well on the ACTrequires calm in the face of time limits. If you struggle to move through material quickly or tend to panic, you'll likely do better with the SAT. #2: Can’t Stand the Idea of Not Getting to Every Question On the SAT, you have enough time to get to most of the questions, as long as you use it wisely. On the ACT, you probably won't finish all of the sections unless you're scoring a 30 or above. If you have an obsessive need to answer every single question, you should stick tothe SAT. #3: Have a Hard Time Spotting Details When You Read SAT reading questions almost always give you the line number where you can find the relevant information. Even if they don't give you the exact location, the questions are in order, so it's rarely difficult to find information in the passage. ACT reading questions, on the other hand, are randomlyordered and frequently don't give line numbers, so finding specific details in the passage is one of the trickiest parts. If you struggle with retaining or finding details, you will probably prefer the SAT. #4: Struggle With Geometry ACT math has over three times as many geometry questions as the math section on the redesigned SAT. Plus, for the ACT, you need to memorize all the formulas, while on the SAT you're given them at the beginning of the section. If you have a very hard time with geometry, consider taking the SAT. #5: Want to Encounter as Little Science as Possible The ACT has a science section; the SAT does not. If you dislike science or struggle with quantitative thinking, you will probably prefer the SAT. The redesigned SAT does include science questions in each of its threesections, so there's no way to escape science entirely. Nonetheless, struggling withscience will have less of an effect on your score onthe SAT than it willon the ACT. #6: Excel at Writing Analytical Essays in English Class The SAT essayasks you to read and analyze a persuasive essay, much like you might for aclass assignment. If you like English class, you'll almost certainly prefer the SAT essay to the ACT one. That being said, neither essay affects your overall score, so a preference for one or the othershouldn't play a major role in your decision between the two tests. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! Next up: the six reasons you might prefer the ACT. Remember you'll have to study forwhichever test you choose. (Image: m00by/Flickr) Take the ACT If You... #1:Struggle With Vocabulary Although it no longer has sentence completion questions, the redesigned SATstill tests more challenging vocabulary on both the reading and writing sections. It also has harder passages on the reading section and more vocab questions overall. The ACT is the better test if you want to avoid higher-level words like "satiated" and "apprehensive" and older passages with challenging language. #2: Can't Always Explain How You Know an Answer Is Correct One of the big changes to the SAT is the addition of evidence questions on the reading section. These questions ask you to point to the part of the passage that supports your answer to another question- #14 is an example: Evidencequestions aren't as novel as they might seem at first, since, in theory, you should always be able to point to the support for your answer in the passage. But if this is a skill you really struggle with, consider taking the ACT instead. #3:Are Intimidated by Doing Math Without a Calculator The SAT has a no-calculator section, so if the idea of doing math without a calculator has you completely freaked out, you may want to stick to the ACT. However, the no-calculator section really doesn't require any complicated calculations. In fact,all of the math questions on both testscanbe done without a calculator, though some are rather challenging. The question is really whether you feel comfortable doing some basic calculations by hand. If not, the SAT will be a challenge for you. #4: Prefer That Different Topics Be Tested in Different Sections One of the goals of the SAT redesign is to integrateimportant skills across all three sections, so there's more overlap between the different sections than on the ACT. One key example of this new policy is the presence of quantitative questions in the reading and writing sections of the SAT. If you'd prefer to avoid this kind of concept mixing, stick with the ACT. #5: Have a Solid Grasp of Experimental Design If you like science, and especially if you have a good understanding of how experiments are built and know the difference between independent and dependentvariables, consider taking the ACT. The ACT asks a lot ofquestionsabout experimental design whilethe SAT new science questions are solely focused on reading charts and graphs. A strong grasp of these concepts will give you a considerable leg up on the ACT. #6: Like to Give Your Opinion The ACT essay is all about arguing for your own point (unlike the SAT essay, which is about analyzing someone else's argument). If you enjoystating your opinion and marshaling examples to back it up, then you will probably prefer the ACT essay. Remember, however, that you may not need to take the essay at all and that, even if you do, it doesn't affect your overall score. You can choose your own adventure in studying. (Image: Nathan Penglington, photo byColin Ross/Flickr) Quiz: Should You Take the ACT or the SAT? In case you're still on the fence about which test you want to focus on, I've created a handy quiz. It sums up all of the ideas above (except those relating to the optional essays) in one easy-to-use chart. To use it, just go through and check"yes" or "no" for each question. Then tally up your answers and give yourself one point for each "yes." Scroll down for an explanation of what your score means. Question Yes No Do you perform well under time pressure? Are you okay with not answering every question on a test? Do you struggle to explain why you think an answer is correct? Do you have a hard timewith high level vocab words? Can you spot details ina passage without reading it closely? Do you dread doing math without a calculator? Do you excel at geometry? Do you prefer each topic be tested separately? Do you understand experimental design? Do you like science? Let's go through what your score means: 1-3: You're an SAT person! If you answered "no" to most of the questions, you'll probably find the SAT more your style. You don't mind slightly harder questions as long asyou don't have to rush and don't have to cover too much material. 4-7: You can do either! If you answered "no" and "yes" roughly the same amount, you will probably find the tests equally approachable. If you're willing to put in the time, try taking one practice test for each and see if you have a strong preference. 8-10: You'll likethe ACT! If you answered mostly "yes," then you're more of an ACT person. You don't mind moving quickly, memorizing material, or answering questions about science. What's Next? For more info on the differences between the two tests, check out our full breakdown or these comparison charts. Wondering how well you'd score on the SAT or ACT?Take a practice test to find out! Check out our links to free and official ACT and SAT practice tests and get started. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon: Our Method for Free Book Reviews Book reviews are what make or break you as an author and since Amazon is the leader in book retailers, getting reviews on Amazon is even more important.As scary as it can be to leave your own fate in the hands of others, its true especially if you publish through Amazon.As a self-published author, having a portfolio of authentic positive Amazon reviews, right from the beginning, can skyrocket your book launch and make your book stand out in your market. And yet it is one of the hardest things to get.For any Amazon product, positive or negative product reviews can be the difference between success and failure.Heres how to get amazon book reviews:Learn Amazon book review guidelinesBuild a launch team for book reviewsContact Amazon top reviewersApply to book review sitesInclude a reminder in your bookRelaunch your bookDeal with negative reviewsGo through the Amazon book review checklistTheres nothing more painful after going through the blood, sweat, and tears of writing, publishing, a nd launching your book, to get very few to no sales because of your lack of reviews.But where do we start to get Amazon reviews? Who do we ask? How do we get reviews that our audience will respect? How many people should we have on our launch team to guarantee a certain number of reviews for setting up promotional sites?How many reviews is enough?We will look at the ways to get legitimate Amazon reviews for your book so that you can reap the benefits of turning your book into a thriving long-term business.NOTE: We cover everything in this blog post and much more about the writing, marketing, and publishing process in our VIP Self-Publishing Program. Learn more about it hereHow to Get Amazon Reviews and the Review ProcessWhen you publish a book, there are essentially 6 things that score at making your book a bestseller. They are:A great book cover design.An irresistible book title.An amazing book description.Stealthy keywords.Targeted book categories.And†¦ Book Reviews.When Amaz on ranks your book, the ranking is based on the volume of downloads your book gets and, the amount of reviews stacked on the book’s review page.Amazon’s system is designed to take notice of books that are getting steady traction when reviews get posted.This is why it is critical that when you launch your book you set everything up to get as many reviews as possible to get momentum going, increase organic traffic, and drive your rankings in the search engines. This means a higher percentage of people writing reviews for your book, not just at launch, but for months (and years) down the road.The bottom line is, reviews carry big weight in the form of social proof that can drive your book to a bestseller and continue to bring in healthy passive income every month.Why do book reviews matter?Because of Amazons algorithm, maintaining a steady income of new book reviews is vital for your book to rise in the rankings. Meaning that if you want your book to continue to sell, you need to obtain real and fresh book reviews.This is a breakdown of why book reviews matter:The more reviews you get, the more visibility your book gets. This means more sales and potential organic reviews.You create a stronger relationship with your readersA boatload of reviews adds credibility to your book and brand.Book reviews for your book on Amazon are one of the defining factors that determine if a potential reader will click the BUY NOW button or not. In fact, if your book has less than 10 reviews, there is a strong chance that your book will get passed over.People want validation before purchasing, and the best way to make that decision is on the front of the product page: reviews. Amazon Reviewer GuidelinesYou can find everything you need to know about posting reviews on Amazon right here under the Community Guidelines.Amazon has tightened the ropes on reviews and as an author, you have to be aware of the tactics that are prohibited.Here is what not to do when it comes to g etting book reviews on Amazon:Pay someone to leave a review. This not only goes against Amazons terms, but it could get your book removed from the shelf and your account banned.Offer a free ‘gift’ in exchange for a review. No gifts allowed. This is still considered payment for a review.Join Facebook groups offering book review swaps. These sites are bad news. Amazon prohibits review swapping and is considered gaming the system. The Amazon algorithm can easily trace reviews back to these sources.Offer an Amazon gift card after a review has been published. It works like this: â€Å"You download the book and leave a review, and I will send you a gift card.† Again, this is against policy and is considered paying for a review.Leave a review for an author, then contact that person requesting they leave a review in return. This would be a form blackmail or trapping the other author into guilt. But this doesn’t work and if you receive any such email, inform the ot her author that you don’t work that way. I did this once and they just removed their review.Most of these fall under the label of incentivized reviews, as there is a form of compensation in exchange for a review by Amazon sellers. Amazon has made it their mission to crack down on these on their platform.Whats the Difference Between Verified and Unverified Book Reviews?According to Amazon,an â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† review means theyve verified that the person writing the review purchased the product at Amazon and didn’t receive the product at a deep discountProduct reviews that are not marked â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† are valuable as well, but we either can’t confirm that the product was purchased at Amazon or the customer did not pay a price available to most Amazon shoppers.Verified reviews are favorable and are social proof that the reader did in fact buy the book and has potentially read through it before posting a review. A verifi ed review shows up as a yellow banner that says â€Å"Verified Purchase, as seen in the example below:For unverified reviews, in most cases, the reviewer received an advance copy of the book and was possibly on a launch team to support the book’s release.While this is still a legit practice for garnering reviews for your book, if the majority of reviews are non-verified, this could affect your potential customer’s decision to buy or not.HowtoGetMoreAmazonBookReviewsThere are many ways to get reviews but searching for reviewers to review your book is a time-consuming process. You could waste precious time chasing bad leads and end up with nothing for your effort.So where do you get reviews without spending hordes of time?No matter how you do it, remember that it isn’t just about quantity but quality as well. While we can’t control what reviewers will say about our work, we can stay focused on writing great content that adds value in order to increase our chances of getting positive reviews.To get Amazon reviews for your next book launch, or to add reviews to an existing book, consider taking action on these following strategies:#1 Build a launch teamThere are many ways to hunt down reviewers for your book. As we have seen, you can contact the top reviewers, target free book review sites, or reach out to book bloggers.These methods, while they may get you a handful of reviews, is time intensive and a lot of work. I have found, after running over two dozen book launches, that the most effective way to get reviews fast on launch is through setting up a launch team.Your launch team is a group of people who have agreed to read your book in advance and follow up with a review immediately after the book is live.When it comes to building a launch team, it is about building relationships over the long term. This is why, in order to run an effective launch team, you should focus on the relationship with your early-bird reviewers.Here is a st ep-by-step process for organizing your team:How to Set Up a Launch Team1. Start building your relationships early. Launch teams don’t just happen. They take work, months of outreaching, and asking the right people if they want to help launch your book when the time is right. You can generate interest by posting snippets of the book on Social media, sharing chapters of your work with your list, and promoting your cover to people.Share your content and advertise your brand. Communicate with people in person and through online channels about your writing. Keep in mind the purpose for this is to make genuine relationships with people and not to just add them to your launch. And most importantly, to make friends with people who read in your niche, so that your book gets recommended alongside the other books they’re reading.2. Create your list of potential reviewers. As you build these relationships with your fanbase, start making a list of people who express interest in joi ning your launch. If you have multiple books and have been through the publishing process already, take note of the readers who have left reviews already.Contact them closer to the launch of your next book to get them on board. Set up an excel spreadsheet and keep track of the names of people who sign up.Action Step:Contact people directly and invite them to the launch team. Keep track of early-bird reviewers in excel.3. Set up an email template through your email server. Add everyone to the list. If you aren’t using an email server yet you can check out Mailchimp, Convert Kit or Mailerlite. Make it as easy as possible so you aren’t wasting time searching for contact information.Send out a welcome email with a link to your book in PDF or/and Mobi form. You can create a folder in Dropbox and just include the link to a shared folder. Make it easy for them to access the material.Action Step: Import your list of emails onto an email server list.4. Send out the Welcome emai l. Ideally you want to send out your book at least two weeks before launch. This gives people enough time to read it through. In the welcome email I include details for the launch date and any other expectations. At this stage the book isn’t live yet so you will send another email on that day with the link.For the book delivery, you can upload a PDF version as well as a Mobi version of the book. To create a MOBI, PDF or EPUB file you can check out the Calibre ebook management software.Heres the difference between EPUB vs MOBI vs PDF so you can choose which to use.After you have all the files ready, you can create a shared folder in Dropbox and share the link with your team.If any top reviewers agreed to leave a review, you absolutely want to message them to follow up.Action Step:Create a welcome email template. Send out your welcome message to the team. Include a link to your book content.5. Send out your ‘Take Action’ email on launch day. Your book is live and i t is time for people to step up. Contact the team on launch day as soon as the book is live. After publishing a book it should take 12-24 hours for Amazon to get it posted. In the email, include a link to your book. More specifically, a link to the review page so that team members can go straight to the page with one click.6. Day 3: Reminder email. I wait 3 days and send out a reminder email. In this email I thank everyone who has left a review and thank people in advance who are still working on the book and haven’t posted yet.7. Final Call: This is the last email I will send out. Similar to the previous email, reminding people the book is live and is ready for a review whenever you are. You can remind your team that book is at a special discounted price if you are launching it at 0.99 or it’s free.8. Contact Your List: If you have a list, this is gold for getting paid downloads and possible reviews. You should contact your list on the first day the book is live and l et people know that the book has just launched. Then, several days later, email them again asking if they had a chance to get into the material. You could add something of value here just to show subscribers how much you value their support. This is the email where I include a ‘leave a review’ invite.These are the steps I use to communicate with my launch team. Generally speaking, if you want 100 reviews for your book, you should aim for at least 200 people.That is a lot of emails but, what I have experienced is that, on average, you are batting a 50% success rate. What happens to those other 50% who don’t review?Heres why some people wont review your book:They didn’t like the book.They forgot to review altogether.They didn’t read the book.They couldn’t be bothered to review.If you can get 20+ reviews on launch after one week you are looking very good. This is enough to get momentum moving and the Amazon algorithm will see that your book is d oing well.#2 Contact Amazon Top ReviewersThere is a list of top 1000 reviewers on Amazon. These people review everything via the Amazon vine program, although certain reviewers target books specifically. If you can get an Amazon Top Reviewer to look at your book, this is well worth it.Check out the Amazon Top Customer Reviewers list. This is a time-consuming process but, if you can get 2-3 reviewers to agree to a book review, you’re all set.Heres how to get more reviews on Amazon with top reviewers:Go into the reviewer’s profile and check the books they have reviewed. To be specific, you want to check for books in your genre. If you wrote a book on weight loss and the reviewer has written most of their reviews for romance novels, it’s a good indication of what they favor. Target the reviewers interested in your topic.Check for contact information. Due to the large volume of spam and requests for reviews, most top reviewers have removed their personal email. If they have a website set up, you can send a direct email to request a review.Wait for a reply. Most reviewers, from my own experience, did not reply. I would recommend targeting 20 reviewers and wait one week. You can then resend the request again.This is a time-consuming process but, if you get a top reviewer to agree to a review, keep that person’s contact information in an excel file. Then, when you launch your next book, you can reach out to them again and again.#3 Book Review SitesThere are a number of sites out there that will find reviewers for your book. This is not the same as buying reviews for your book which, I’ll restate again, goes against Amazon’s review policy and should be avoided.In fact, Amazon has taken action against over 1000 sites on Fiverr that were selling incentivized reviews and fake review services. Yes, avoid.Review services, however, can speed up the process and find reviewers for your book. One of my favorites is BookRazor. It is a paid site but they promote a system of honest reviewers for your book by providing a contact list of potential readers.There are many other sites you can check out as well, and many of them are free while some are paid:Kindle Book ReviewRainbow Book ReviewsKO’s Stuffed ShelfThe Kindle Book Review#4 Include a reminder in your bookHere is a tactic that works well. Did you know that you can include insert a request in your book for readers to leave a review? It’s a great way to invite people to review your book.I have a page at the back of my books that looks like this:What Did You Think of [Your Book Title Here]?First of all, thank you for purchasing this book [Your Book Title Here]. I know you could have picked any number of books to read, but you picked this book and for that I am extremely grateful.I hope that it added at value and quality to your everyday life. If so, it would be really nice if you could share this book with your friends and family by posting to Fa cebook and Twitter.If you enjoyed this book and found some benefit in reading this, I’d like to hear from you and hope that you could take some time to post a review on Amazon. Your feedback and support will help this author to greatly improve his writing craft for future projects and make this book even better.You can follow this link to [Book link here] now.I want you, the reader, to know that your review is very important and so, if you’d like to leave a review, all you have to do is click here and away you go. I wish you all the best in your future success!When you do this, you want to have a link directing customers right back to the review page on Amazon. Make it so easy for them that it requires as little effort as possible.Many authors will include a cute ‘cat photo’ or even pictures of their kids begging asking for a review. This strategy can work well if you sell a large volume of books during the initial launch phase.But remember it takes reader s time to go through your book and so, if you don’t see the reviews appear in the first week, you might get them trickling in weeks or even months later.#5 Relaunch Your BookYou can relaunch your book if book sales drop and the reviews stop coming in. When you relaunch your book, you can put together a new launch team, and even add a new chapter to the book to generate a renewed interest in your book.I have tried this strategy several times in the past year and, by relaunching the book, adding new value to the content, I put together another small launch team of 30-40 people. This brought in another 20+ reviews for a book that was suffering from lack of sales and poor rankings.It happens, so we have to stay on top of keeping the book active.How to Deal with Negative ReviewsGetting positive reviews on your book is a great feeling. In a perfect world, we all want to have just the good stuff when it comes to our review platform. But alas, there will always be that dissatisfied reader that was expecting something much different than what your book was offering.Readers will leave a negative review for various reasons, and in most cases, there is nothing we can do.But first of all, receiving a negative review isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it can lend to a book’s credibility. Look at it from a reader’s perspective. If a book has 100 positive 5-star reviews, although the reviews may be legitimate, we know that not every book is perfect.Having a load of good reviews and nothing that is under three stars could create doubt for the browser, just as having a book with only a handful of reviews turns browsers the other way.While negative reviews aren’t all bad, there are steps we can take to reduce the amount.So how can we prevent our book from getting a lot of negative reviews and turning away potential book sales?Here are four areas to pay attention to:Book quality: the single biggest reason a book will get panned by negative re views is poor quality. This is credited to sloppy editing. A book that is not up to the quality expected by readers will get hit with a high amount of bad reviews. Then, it could get pulled off the shelf by Amazon until the author upgrades to better quality. Make sure your book is up the high standards people expect. Always respect your readers. The book business is like any other business, make good products, and your customers will love you.Inaccurate description of the book: make sure that your book description, title and cover all point towards the theme of the book. If your book is titled, â€Å"How to become rich in 21 days† and, after reading through the book the reader isn’t rich, well, they bought the book because of the promise you made. So, if reading a book delivers a negative outcome for your audience, someone is going to shout about it in a review.Your book is a sales pitch for your other products. If there is one thing that readers don’t like, it is being hit up with offers and the push to check out other services or products in the book. This could come across as spammy and devalues the content that the readers paid for. While your goal may be to use the book to attract customers for your online business, you want to avoid any sales pitches in the book.How to Write and Submit a ReviewWriting a review for a book you like is a great way to drive potential readers to the title. If you read a great book recently and you want to tell people about it, you can take a few minutes to write up a positive review.Writing a review is easy. Just go to the book’s front page and, under the heading Customer Reviews, you will see a button for write a customer review. Click on that and you will be taken to a page set up for ‘Your Reviews’ where you can write reviews for your purchases.What you do is:Select the rating of the book from 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best score.Write your book description in the box provided. Ke ep in mind that if you leave this page before submitting your review, you’ll have to start over again. I would recommend writing the review first in Word or Evernote and then copy and paste.Create a headline for the review.Hit submit. Your review will go live within a couple of hours, although it could take up to 24 hours.One point to note here is that, with Amazon’s policy for posting reviews, you have to have an account that has made a purchase of at least $50 using a valid credit or debit card.Checklist for Getting Amazon Book ReviewsIf you follow these steps, youll be able to get more book reviews and in turn, sell more books.Set up a launch team for your book. Send your team a PDF/MOBI/EPUB file and follow up with email right up until launch. Follow up with several reminders after the launch.Include a ‘Review Request’ page at the back of your book. Insert the link taking customers directly to the review page. Make it so easy they don’t have to search around for the book on Amazon.Contact Amazon Top Reviewers. Send a personalized email to each, targeting the people who review books similar to your genre. Wait at least two weeks before following up.Contact people in your business. This doesn’t include friends and family. Contact professionals in your field who would be willing to read the book with the possibility of leaving an honest review.Hire a site that specializes in finding honest reviewers for your book. I recommend BookRazor.Relaunch your book. Add more content, a new book cover, or make it appealing for people to join your relaunch of an existing book. You can relaunch a book as many times as you want.There are a lot of strategies out there to get reviews for your books, most are legit, and some are not. As an author, make sure you are aware of what Amazon considers to be authentic reviews when it comes to gathering reviews for your next book, and steer clear of anything it considers to be incentivized revi ews.If a site promises to get you positive reviews in return for cash, stay away. It isnt worth it, trust me. Keep hunting and adding reviews to your book.Book reviews are the secret sauce to adding value and credibility to your work, boosting sales and making your book stick on the bestseller lists. Dont skimp out on them.Its Time for Your FREE TrainingOne of the easiest and most natural ways to get good book reviews is to write a book worthy of them.Heres how you can learn to do that.