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As a high school science and math tutor, I get a lot of questions about college prep and standardized testing. Many students struggle between deciding between taking the ACT or the SAT if their desired school accepts both test scores. Over the years I have found a few key differences that help students decide which is right for them.
The ACT and SAT tests are a test designed to
evaluate a student’s aptitude for a variety of subjects. Each test changed
every session, so the scores are scaled to make them comparable from session to
session. Although almost every college will accept either score, it is up to
the student to decide which test is better for them. Both take roughly 3.5
hours plus breaks, and cover a variety of core subjects. There are, however a
few key differences:
1. The ACT has a Science section.
Although this ‘Science’ section may scare many
students away from the ACT, a more accurate title would be ‘Science Reasoning’
section. This section does not test
one’s knowledge about physics, chemistry, or biology, but rather tests one’s
ability to use the scientific reasoning one has developed in those courses.
This section consists of experimental data, charts, graphs, and other
information which the student must analyze and use to come to some sort of conclusions.
2. The SAT has an unscored ‘experimental’ section.
The SAT has an additional, unscored ‘experimental section, which
will either be an additional math, reading, or writing section. This means
there will be an extra section in one of these categories, but it will not be
identified as to which one is not graded, so be sure to try your best on each
one.
3. The SAT penalizes you for wrong answers.
The ACT uses only your correct
answers in order to determine your section and overall scores. The SAT however,
not only awards points for wrong answers, but subtracts points for incorrect answers. This means that if one is taking
the SAT, they are better off leaving an answer blank than ‘guessing’. There are
many strategies designed to help a student decide when to skip and when to ‘guess’
on the SAT, but a student should really use their own judgement on how
confident they feel about each answer. If they are pretty sure but have some
doubt, they might want to guess, but randomly bubbling, or ‘Christmas-treeing’
as it is sometimes called, is highly discouraged.
4. The SAT emphasizes vocabulary.
The SAT is known for its difficult vocabulary
questions, and there are plenty of prep materials out there just to help you learn these. If you are
a great wordsmith, this will be a good fit for you, but if you struggle finding
synonyms or with particular connotations of words, this might be something you
should stay away from.
5. The location of the essay portions are different.
Does writing an essay tire you out, or warm
you up? The SAT starts with the essay portion, with the multiple choice
sections all coming after. The ACT, on the other hand, finishes with the essay
last. If this is something that could affect how you perform on the rest of the
exam, it may be something worth thinking about.
6. The SAT is broken up into many small sections.
When a student takes the ACT, they take each
subject in one long sitting. On the SAT, the subjects are divided into 10
smaller multiple choice sections, with the student switching back and forth
between the different subjects. If moving back and forth between the content
confuses you, you may want to take the ACT, but if you get tired of a subject
after thirty minutes, you may want to take the SAT.
7. The ACT is more time-constrained.
On the SAT is it important to be conscious of
time, but bad time management could break you on the ACT. A student is much more likely to run out of time on a
section of the ACT, so it is important to know your limits in regards to time.
If you are not the best at paying attention to the clock during exams, you may
want to take a timed practice test to see how strapped for time you’ll end up
being.
8. ACT composite is more important than sections.
When colleges are reviewing a student’s
scores, they are much more concerned with a student’s composite on the ACT and
with the subject scores on the SAT. So if you have relatively strong scores on
each section and they don’t differ much, the SAT might be better for you, but
if you are weak in grammar but have a killer math talent, than the ACT might be
the way to go.
9. ACT questions tend to be more straightforward.
The ACT tends to write pretty straightforward
questions that might take multiple steps and a little more effort to solve. The
SAT however tends to have harder to understand questions, but once a student
understands what is being asked of them, it may be easier or simpler to solve.
10. The ACT tests more advanced math concepts.
SAT and ACT both cover basic logical
arithmetic, Algebra I and II, and a good deal of geometry. The ACT, however,
also includes some basic trigonometry, which can be difficult for those with a
weakness in math. However, the questions tend to be easier to understand, so I
would recommend trying out a few problems of each and deciding from there which
you may prefer.
11. The ACT Writing Test is optional.
The ACT essay portion is not included in one’s
overall score- it is sort of tacked on to the end. That said, most colleges
will require you take this portion as well. The key difference here is if you
struggle with writing essays that require you to take a position on a topic and
explain it, then you can still do poorly on it without it affecting your overall
score. If you are a strong writer, however, you may want to take the SAT so
that your essay score helps your grammar score.
Determining which exam is right for you
There are many different factors in deciding
which test would be a better for you to take. If you are still unsure which you
want to take after reading this post, I recommend taking a practice test of
each, and seeing how you fair on each one and which you feel more comfortable
with. Additionally, there are many different online assessment quizzes that can
estimate which one is better for you based on your testing habits and
preferences.
In the end, it is a good idea to take both the SAT and the ACT, since you can
choose which scores to submit to which schools. That way, you have twice the
opportunity to impress your dream school.
