SAT vs. ACT: Which Test Should I Take?
/Let’s start by answering a common question: Do all colleges accept the ACT? Yes, ALL COLLEGES ACCEPT EITHER TEST. All 4-year colleges in the U.S. will accept either the SAT or the ACT. COLLEGES HAVE NO PREFERENCE FOR ONE TEST OVER THE OTHER. The popularity of one test over the other is purely geographic. If you grew up only knowing about the SAT and think the ACT is some new trend, try talking to someone from the middle of the country. I guarantee they grew up only knowing about the ACT and think the SAT is the new trend.
So, if colleges accept both tests, should you prepare for and take both? Ideally, no. That’s a lot of time and energy that most students don’t have during a busy junior year. Instead, we start every student off with a free full-length diagnostic SAT and ACT. By comparing the results, we can often immediately rule out one test. Then, we set each student up with a plan to prepare for the test on which they have the potential to achieve the highest score.
For someone looking to get a better sense of which test is better for them before diagnostic testing or if diagnostic scores are very similar, structural and content differences come into play. There is one primary difference between the tests:
The most important difference between the SAT and ACT is complexity vs. speed:
THE SAT HAS MORE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS.
THE ACT HAS STRICTER TIME LIMITS.
This is most noticeable on the reading section:
The SAT reading contains questions that require a deep and comprehensive understanding of both the question and the passage. Students have 75 seconds per question.
The ACT reading contains many questions in which answers can be found nearly word-for-word in the passage. Students have 52 seconds per question.
Generally, students who are able to finish the ACT reading section within the time limit are going to perform better on the ACT reading than SAT reading.
Some other differences between the tests:
Half of the overall SAT score comes from math. Only 25% of the ACT score comes from math.
The SAT is out of 1600 possible points: 800 from verbal and 800 from math.
The ACT is out of 36 possible points: the overall score comes from taking the average of each of the ACT’s four sections. Only one of the four sections is math.
A student who is much stronger in math than verbal may excel on the SAT, since a larger portion of her score will be derived from math.
A balanced student or a student who excels on the verbal sections of these tests may be better off taking the ACT.
The SAT and ACT differ in the math content they cover.
The SAT focuses more on algebraic reasoning. There are many questions that require the student to interpret a linear model or perform some advanced factoring techniques
The ACT has more geometry questions.
While they differ at times, these tests cover a lot of the same material and a strong math student should be able to excel on either the SAT math or the ACT math.
The ACT has a science section.
Although called a science section, this portion of the test focuses primarily on interpreting charts and graphs.
Students DO NOT need any science knowledge for 90+% of the questions on this section.
The only real indication for how a student will perform on the science section is to have them try one.
For many students, the toughest part about the science section is finishing it in time.
To try out a diagnostic ACT, check out more info about our diagnostic tests or give us a call 215-884-5789.