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Soak Up Some Prep This Summer

Whether you’re looking to ace the verbal or math sections of the SAT or compose a compelling college application essay that will linger in the minds of admissions officers, we have the course to help you achieve your aspirations. All of our summer programs are live-online and led by our most gifted and accomplished instructors.

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The People Behind The Playbook

If you’re reading this sentence, there’s a good chance you or a teenager whose cell phone bill you pay will be taking the SAT or ACT fairly soon. You may be feeling a little bit stressed about the whole process—or, if you’re like most parents of juniors, you may be feeling very stressed about the whole process. After all, when did test prep and college admissions become so insane?

At THE PLAYBOOK, we can’t do anything about the tests themselves, but we can change the way that students approach testing and admissions.

Tests aren’t measures of intelligence or aptitude; they’re hurdles to be leapt over and put in the rearview mirror. We teach proven methods for tackling every question that students are guaranteed to face, and we do so with patience, empathy, and a much-needed sprinkling of humor.

Start by checking out our latest articles and advice, then review our prep options to see which plan is right for you.

Recent Articles and Advice

We can’t tell you how to refinance your home or achieve a flatter tummy. We can’t tell you the secret to radiant-looking skin or the healthy superfoods you should be eating (though we at The Playbook are pretty fond of Goji berries, for what it’s worth).

However, we can tell you all about college admissions and testing, so check out our latest articles for helpful information and advice, from COVID’s impact on the SAT and ACT to tips for getting into medical school while you’re still in high school.

Admissions in the Age of Social Media

Be careful what you post, tweet, chat, or like—a single comment can get you banned from college for good.

COVID’s Impact on the SAT

The pandemic has affected the role of standardized tests in college admissions, but don’t throw away your No. 2 pencils just yet.

The PSAT: A Very Important Test That Doesn’t Really Matter (Except When It Does)

Does the PSAT actually count for anything or is it simply practice?

Traveling Out of State to Take the SAT

Not exactly the kind of road trip Kerouac wrote about, but…

A “Good Score,” Defined

Our answer to the perennial question, “What’s a good score on the SAT?”

The Problem with Khan Academy

Reaching for a high score? Khan Academy’s prep videos are great—but far from enough.

The Myth of Well-Roundedness

Can striving to come across as well-rounded actually hurt your chances of admission?

The SAT vs. the ACT Settled Once and for All (Well, Kind of)

The SAT and ACT—bitter archenemies since the dawn of No. 2 pencils—are far more alike than they’ve ever been before, but there are still important differences students need to consider.

“We’re so thankful to have The Playbook as our exclusive prep partner. Jared and his team have been beyond dedicated to our school, even helping students outside of class with free academic support and admissions advice. And our average SAT and PSAT scores have soared. The Playbook’s Future National Merit Scholars program doubled our number of National Merit Scholarship winners, and the vast majority of our juniors improved by 100 to 300 points over their previous SAT score.”

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Holly Barbarossa
The Mary Louis Academy
New York City

Prep Options

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A procrastination-proof plan for writing riveting college application essays.

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Our advisors aren’t salespersons. They’re professional educators with years of experience helping families navigate the test prep and college admissions process. Connect with us for free—no obligations or strings attached.

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100 THINGS MOST TEENAGERS WOULD RATHER DO THAN PREP FOR THE SAT OR ACT

1. Visit the orthodontist. 2. Watch PBS. 3. Go an entire week without rolling their eyes at their parents. 4. Watch C-SPAN. 5. Retake their AP Chem final. 6. Intern at a local CPA’s office. 7. Turn off their cell phone. 8. Mop the kitchen. 9. Clean their bathroom. 10. Renounce social media. 11. Write a 10-page history paper. 12. Get a bunch of allergy shots. 13. Wait in line at the post office. 14. Watch the Weather Channel. 15. Be abducted by aliens. 16. Attend a clarinet recital. 17. Tour a Soviet-era nuclear plant. 18. Eat a healthy and nutritious dinner. 19. Do calisthenics. 20. Bake snickerdoodle cookies for that guy who’s always loitering by his van. 21. Watch a black-and-white foreign film without subtitles. 22. Clean out the rain gutters. 23. Pretend they’re 42 and recently divorced. 24. Listen to NPR’s Weekend Edition. 25. Read a newspaper. 26. Visit the DMV. 27. Eat crispy fried tarantulas (considered a delicacy in Cambodia). 28. Serve as a “breath odor evaluator” for a toothpaste company. (Yes, this job actually exists.) 29. Go on a double date with their parents. 30. Undergo dental surgery. 31. Babysit their annoying stepbrother. 32. Empty Mr. Whisker’s litter box. 33. Take out the trash. 34. Clean the rain gutters. 35. Tell their parents they’d like to sit down to discuss the Birds n’ the Bees. 36. Stare at a blank television screen for several hours. 37. Be fitted for orthodontic headgear. 38. Organize their closet. 39. Vacuum their entire house. 40. Eat that substance their school cafeteria claims is Sloppy Joe. 41. Kiss Tucker Carlson. 42. Make origami turtles for the residents of a local nursing home. 43. Do a few hundred burpees. 44. Try Uncle Morris’s beef stew. 45. Watch Hillbilly Handfishin’ on Animal Planet. 46. Eat “bird’s nest” soup, which sounds kind of scrumptious unless you know the broth is made from bird SALIVA. 47. Set up an Facebook account for Grandma. 48. Start a backyard garden. 49. Dust home furnishings. 50. Do an exercise known as the “Bulgarian Split Squat.” 51. Help Dad trim his back hair. 52. Hunt for spare change between the sofa cushions. 53. Hunt for leftover Cheez-Its between the sofa cushions. 54. Mow the lawn. 55. Learn how to knit. 56. Research Wikipedia’s entry on the history of Q- tips. 57. Count how many times they can blink in one hour. 58. Compose a haiku. 59. Do one of the American Dental Association’s oral disease-themed jigsaw puzzles. 60. Watch televised bowling. 61. Give Grandpa a foot massage. 62. Give Grandma a foot massage. 63. Play tea party with their six-year-old stepsister. 64. Read The Red Badge of Courage. 65. Browse Burlington Coat Factory’s fall collection. 66. Floss. 67. Listen to The Scarlett Letter on audiobook. 68. Watch televised bowling. 69. Lie really, really still and pretend they’re deceased. 70. Join their twelve-year-old sister and all of her friends for a dance party!!! 71. Wash their parents’ minivan. 72. Journal about their feelings. 72. Give themselves a haircut. 73. Make homemade kombucha. 74. Learn to crochet. 75. Get a head start on their LinkedIn profile. 76. Watch a black- and-white movie marathon. 77. Visit the library. 78. Run a relay race. 79. Eat slimy san-nakji, which is considered a delicacy in Korea. 80. Eat khash, a traditional dish in Southeastern Europe that is so disgusting you’re just going to have to Google it to find out what it’s made of. 81. Eat the Swedish delicacy blodpättar, which kind of sounds like what it is. 81. Eat bat soup, a traditional dish in Micronesia. 82. Eat harkarl, rotten shark meat that is considered a delicacy in Iceland. 83. Eat the Scottish dish known as haggis. 84. Eat escamol, a Mexican dish that kind of looks like it’s made of rice but definitely isn’t. 85. Eat “Rocky Mountain Oysters,” which, despite the name, may not be from the Rocky Mountains and definitely are not oysters. 86. Wrestle an alligator. 87. Be a “professional apologizer,” a person whose actual full-time job is to apologize on behalf of other people. 88. Be an ostrich babysitter, which is apparently something people do in South Africa. 89. Ponder what life would have been like if they had been born in Kazakhstan. 90. Take a transatlantic flight on Biman Bangladesh Airlines, widely considered the worst airline in the entire world. 91. Eat fugu, a potentially lethal blowfish. 92. Do a form of running exercise known as “laps of misery.” 93. Walk the neighbor’s dog. 94. Clean their room. 95. Frolic naked through the mall. 96. Do a handstand on two fingers. 97. Do one-armed chin-ups. 98. Do a form of exercise known as a “flying human flag abdominal crunch.” 99. Watch the 2011 movie Tree of Life. (Trust us, it’s booooring.) 100. Use sock puppets to practice their future networking skills.