Blackburn Mentoring offers free interactive tools for students, young adults and parents: a career interest quiz, high school and college GPA calculators, a financial aid offer comparison, a budget calculator, a weekly goal planner and three readiness quizzes, plus printable checklists and planners. Every tool is free, needs no sign-up, and nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.
Quizzes
Each quiz takes three to five minutes and ends with plain next steps and links to guides for anything that needs work.
- Career interest quiz: rate 30 short statements to find your top RIASEC interest areas, with careers and degree guides to explore for each.
- Is my teen ready for college?: a 15-question quiz for parents that scores academics, self-management, money, health and self-advocacy.
- Launch readiness quiz: for parents of adult children 18 to 30 living at home, covering work, money, routine, home and planning.
- Would a mentor help?: ten questions for a parent or a young adult that suggest which support fits first: a mentor, a tutor, a licensed professional, a school counselor or nothing new.
- Trust distribution readiness checklist: 20 questions for a young adult, a parent or a trustee before a trust distribution at 18, 21 or 25, covering habits, money basics, structure and support, with plain next steps.
Calculators
The calculators do the math with your own numbers. They are planning tools, not financial or admissions advice.
- Weighted GPA calculator: for high school students; shows unweighted and weighted GPA with honors, AP, IB and dual enrollment weighting.
- UC and CSU GPA calculator: for California high school students; your UC unweighted, weighted capped and fully weighted GPA and your CSU GPA from 10th and 11th grade A to G grades.
- A to G requirements checker: enter courses by subject to see which UC and CSU A to G areas are met and what is still missing.
- College GPA calculator: term and cumulative GPA, a retake under grade replacement, and the term GPA you need to reach a target.
- Drop, withdraw or stay class decision helper: for college students deciding whether to drop a class, take a W or stay; shows the grade needed on the rest of the course and who to ask first.
- Financial aid offer comparison: up to three college offers side by side, with net cost, the amount still to cover and total loans.
- Young adult budget calculator: a monthly budget for a first job or first apartment, compared with the 50/30/20 guideline.
- After-school time planner: for parents and students; enter a typical school day with drives, practice, dinner and bedtime to see how much homework time is really left and when work needs to start.
- Young performer work hours calculator: for parents of child actors and teen performers in California; time at the workplace, work time, school with a studio teacher, rest and the 12 hour turnaround by age, with the rule behind each limit.
Planners
- Weekly goal planner: one main goal, three to five steps with a day for each, a done checkbox and an end-of-week check-in you can print or copy.
- Appeal letter builder: a step-by-step guide to an honest first draft of an academic probation, suspension, dismissal or financial aid SAP appeal, with a letter check and copy, print and download buttons.
- GPA recovery planner: the GPA you need next term to reach a target such as 2.0, a term-by-term path, a retake what-if and a term GPA calculator.
- Graduate on time credit planner: the credits you need each term to graduate by your target, a full time check, a term by term plan with optional summer and winter terms, and what a W or retake changes.
- Living at home agreement builder: for parents and adult children; house expectations, contribution, a timeline to the next step and a check-in schedule, turned into an agreement you can copy or print.
Free printable tools
These pages are designed to print or save as a PDF from your browser’s print menu. They work well for a family conversation, a counselor’s office or a fridge door.
- Launch readiness checklist: the life skills a young adult needs before living on their own, with a simple three-level rating for each skill.
- Living at home agreement: a fill-in template for parents and adult children covering chores, contribution, work or school, guests, the car and review dates.
- Weekly planner for students: a printable weekly layout and a 20-minute Sunday planning routine for high school and college students.
Two of our guides also include checklists that print well: the first apartment checklist and the college move-in checklist.
Which tool should I start with?
- Parents of high school students: start with the college readiness quiz, then the weighted GPA calculator.
- High school seniors with offers in hand: use the financial aid offer comparison, then read our guide to choosing a college after acceptances.
- College students: the college GPA calculator, especially if a scholarship, a major or academic probation depends on the number.
- Young adults working out what is next: the career interest quiz, the budget calculator and the weekly goal planner.
- Parents of adult children at home: the launch readiness quiz, the launch readiness checklist and the living at home agreement.
- Not sure whether a mentor is the right kind of help: the mentor fit quiz.
How these tools handle your information
Everything runs in your browser. There is no account, no email form and no tracking of your answers, and nothing is stored once you leave the page. If you want to keep a result, print the page or copy what you need.
The quizzes are conversation starters and exploration tools, not validated assessments or diagnoses. The calculators give general estimates; your school, your financial aid office or a qualified professional has the official answer for your situation. If a quiz touches on mood, anxiety or substance use, a licensed professional is the right next step. In a crisis, call or text 988.
Getting the most out of a tool
- Take it honestly. Answer for how things are now, not how you hope they will be.
- Pick one thing from the results to work on. Trying to fix everything at once rarely works.
- Turn it into a weekly step with the weekly goal planner, and give that step a day.
- Come back in a month or two and use the tool again to see what moved.
Where a mentor helps
A tool can show where things stand. Changing it takes steady weekly effort, and that is easier with someone in your corner. At Blackburn Mentoring, each client works with one dedicated mentor who sets goals with them, breaks them into weekly steps and checks in by text and phone between sessions, by video anywhere in the United States or in person in Los Angeles. Read how mentoring works, or browse all of our guides.
Printable PDF templates
- Living at Home Agreement: for parents and adult children sharing a home
- Roommate Agreement: rent, bills, chores, guests and moving out
- Weekly Planner: one goal and weekly steps on one page
- Launch Readiness Checklist: life skills before moving out
- Job Search Tracker: applications, contacts and next steps
Related
Common questions
Are these tools really free?
Yes. Every tool, quiz and printable on this page is free to use, with no sign-up and no email required.
Is anything I enter saved?
No. The tools run in your browser and nothing is stored or sent anywhere. Print or copy your results if you want to keep them.
Are the quizzes scientific assessments?
No. They are exploration and conversation tools. For anything involving health, mental health or safety, talk with a licensed professional.
Can schools or counselors share these tools?
Yes. Link to any page here; the printable tools are made to hand out.
Get started
Want help turning a result into a plan? Call (888) 305 5422, email contact@blackburnmentoring.com or start with a short assessment. A member of our team reviews every assessment personally and sets up a free intro call.
Last updated .
Free, by video, 20 minutes, with a member of our team. Weekdays 9 to 5 Pacific.