ACT vs. SAT FAQ
(Click here to download the full .pdf version of this FAQ.)
The SAT and ACT are fundamentally different tests with meaningful overlaps. There are similarities and differences between the tests in history, content, speededness, and stress reactions, all of which can make one test a better option for some kids than for others.Since most people are generally familiar with the SAT and less so with the ACT, this document will seek to explain the differences between the two tests by comparing the ACT to the SAT.
To begin with, the ACT essentially was created to serve as an "un-SAT." Begun by educational pioneer E.F. Lindquist, the ACT was developed when the SAT was still presented (and more importantly accepted as) the Scholastic Aptitude Test (emphasis mine). In large measure, Lindquist detested and derided the hubris of that claim and created the ACT as a test that overtly tested college readiness. At a time when the SAT trafficked in arcane vocabulary and questions noted for their trickiness and "inside baseball" knowledge, the ACT assessed only content knowledge and fundamental skills. Though the SAT has changed numerous times since the early 1950s, these perceptions still persist.
Arguably, the most common reactions to the ACT are: "it's more straightforward" and " I ran short on time."
What is the
ACT?
How is the
ACT different from the
SAT?
How is the ACT scored?
Is there a penalty for wrong answers?
What schools take the ACT?
What schools take the SAT?
Do colleges look at the ACT differently from the SAT?
Is there an advantage to taking both tests?
What's this "score choice" thing?
How about "superscoring"?
Should I take the SAT with Writing?
How can I know which test to take?
Some qualities that might point to the likely better test for you:
Who does better on the ACT relative to the SAT?
Who else?
Who does better on the SAT relative to the ACT?
Who else?
ACT English vs. SAT Writing:
ACT Reading vs. SAT Reading:
ACT Math vs. SAT Math:
ACT Essay vs. Essay:
What is the ACT?
The ACT is a
product of American College Testing, a
competitor to Educational Testing Service (ETS)
and College Board. The pioneer of the ACT was
an education professor at the University of
Iowa named E.F. Lindquist, who despised the SAT
with a historical passion. In its early days,
the SAT was promulgated as an aptitude test,
the equivalent of an IQ test; so, if currently
you are of the opinion that the SAT measures
intelligence or aptitude, you are in good
company. Lindquist, however, dismissed this
notion, and instead he designed and marketed
the ACT as a test of practical knowledge and
college preparedness. How is the ACT
different from the SAT? Most people find
the ACT more straightforward, but more time
pressed. It is a 2:55 minute exam (plus another
30 minutes for the essay). The SAT is a 3:20
minute exam (and another 25 minutes for the
essay). The ACT is
comprised of four sections: English: 75
questions in 45 minutes that test punctuation
and rhetoric. You need to know commas,
apostrophes, and dashes, as well as how to join
together sentences. Redundancy, diction, and
basic grammar are also tested. Most people can
finish this section in time.
How is the ACT
scored? Like all
standardized exams, it is graded on a curve, in
this case from 1-36, with 36 being perfect. The
Composite score is the average of the English,
Math, Reading and Science
scores. Is there a
penalty for wrong answers? There is no
penalty for incorrect answers; they are treated
as omitted questions. Students, therefore,
should fill in all of the questions if they run
short on time. What schools
take the ACT? Every school that
you know. As of now, only Staten Island and
Ramapo Colleges say they will not accept the
ACT in lieu of the SAT. What schools
take the SAT? Pretty much every
school, but a few are eschewing the SAT for the
ACT or Subject Tests. Connecticut College is
one notable example. Do colleges
look at the ACT differently from the
SAT? The US News
and World Report College Ranking Guide
treats the ACT and the SAT as equivalent tests.
Colleges do too. If you would have identical
test scores on the ACT and SAT, the most elite
East Coast colleges (Ivies) likely give some
small edge to the SAT. Otherwise, colleges
don’t care and are just looking for a high
score. Period. Is there an
advantage to taking both tests?
Only if you want
to bury admissions in near perfect scores to
distract them from lower grades, or if you
cannot think of a better use for your Saturday
mornings than taking another standardized test.
What’s this
"score choice" thing? Beginning with the
class of 2010, both the SAT and ACT will allow
the option of reporting scores by test date.
That is, you can send the results of the May
test, but not the January test, if you like. In
turn, you can swing for the fences as if it’s a
home run derby, ignore the whiffs, and then
only send the killer score to create the
impression that you are “a natural.”
How about
"superscoring"? Superscoring is
the process by which colleges form your
aggregate standardized test score by
cherry-picking the highest sub-scores from
multiple tests taken on different dates. When
SAT score reports were cumulative, most schools
calculated their scores in this way, and most
still do. Far fewer schools superscore ACT
scores, so check on the school’s policy before
deciding which scores to send.
Should I take
the ACT with Writing? When the new SAT
was launched in March 2005 with an essay, the
ACT responded by tacking an essay onto the end
of its test. Most colleges want students tested
on an essay, so students should take the ACT
with Writing. Colleges, however, care little
about the ACT Writing score since it is not
part of the Composite score. How can I know
which test to take? The ACT may be
described fairly as a more academic test than
the SAT. Any test’s degree of difficulty is a
function of its “power” (the absolute
difficulty of its questions) and its
"speededness" (the number of questions that can
be answered in the allotted time). The SAT has
a higher power and lower speededness. The ACT
is the flip. Having all day to do questions on
the SAT wouldn’t change the fact that there are
vocabulary words you simply don’t know, or
there are certain math questions that are just
too tricky. The ACT is speeded; students
frequently feel as if they could have done all
of the questions, but just didn’t have enough
time. Figuring out which test is better for
students is a function of how their strengths
and weaknesses align with one test or another,
how their anxiety is manifested, and how
they’re affected by this
anxiety. Below are some
qualities that might point to the likely better
test for you: You are a fast
reader but not a "deep reader." - ACT
Who does better
on the ACT relative to the SAT?
Highly academic
students prone to test anxiety. The ACT does
not lean on working memory as much as the SAT
does. When students get anxious, their ability
to effectively store and manipulate new
information decreases, so anxious students are
more likely to underperform on the SAT than on
the ACT because of the demands on working
memory created by the SAT. Who
else? People at the top
end of the curve. The ACT has a squishy curve.
Once students start to top 27, the ground gets
firmer, with each correct answer generally
resulting in another point. This is true of all
bell-curved tests, but markedly more so on the
ACT than on the SAT. Part of this reflects the
fact that the SAT has 60 increments (200 to
800) and 67, 54 and 49 questions on the
Reading, Math and Writing portions
respectively. The ACT has 36 increments (1 to
36) for 60, 75, 40 and 40 questions on the
English, Math, Reading, and Science portions
respectively. Generally, students in the high
600 range who cannot quite crack the 700s on
the SAT find the equivalent ACT barrier easier
to surmount. Also, it appears that the ACT-SAT
equivalency chart is a bit skewed in such a way
that getting a 31 (really 30.5) is easier than
getting a 700. Think SAT/ACT arbitrage.
Who does better
on the SAT relative to the ACT? Sharp wise-guys
(and girls). The SAT rewards people whose
mindset is to look for "the angle."
Who else?
Students who will
always be too slow to get through the bulk of
the ACT, but find that the time doesn’t affect
them as much on the SAT. Also, the SAT may be
better for those who find that tricks on the
SAT can earn them points. Kids in the 450-550
range without extra time will likely not find a
strategic advantage in the ACT unless the
facets that allow a reduction of stress are
paramount. The middle range of the ACT is
squishy, where several more correct answers
yield only a few points. The SAT is less
squishy, with a more direct correlation between
correct answers and higher
scores. ACT English vs.
SAT Writing: The Writing
section on the SAT principally addresses
grammatical points (subject-verb agreement,
pronouns, parallelism, dangling participles,
etc.) The ACT English section principally
addresses the mechanics of punctuation (commas,
apostrophes, dashes) and rhetoric (transitions,
sentence order, conjunctions). There is no
meaningful content found exclusively on one or
the other. The SAT, however, more consistently
picks on the deviation between standard written
English and how we actually speak the language,
while the ACT focuses more on testing
punctuation. Students who don't "have an ear
for language" are likely to struggle on both,
but may find more success on the ACT English
than on the SAT Writing. However, there are two
important strategic concerns: ACT Reading vs.
SAT Reading: The ACT Reading is
straightforward. The answers are in the
passages. However, the test is designed such
that only strong or fast readers can
comfortably finish all of the questions.
Test-takers generally have less of an issue
with time on the SAT Reading. The ACT has the
advantage of not emphasizing vocabulary the way
the SAT does. So, students with weaker
vocabularies (non-native English speakers, for
example) will generally have a much higher
potential on the ACT Reading. Lastly and
significantly, the inherent difficulty of the
SAT Reading is found not in the level of the
text, but in the cleverness of the answer
choices. Students frequently find that “more
than one answer works” and feel bedeviled when
trying to decide between the two; they must,
therefore, be sure to look closely at words to
determine the difference between what the words
“might say” or “seem to mean,” and the literal,
dictionary-based reading of the words. Students
who have the ability to parse language can,
with effective guidance, “see through” the SAT.
Students for whom such an approach is difficult
or who don‘t have that level of reading
sophistication will (time permitting) find
greater success on the ACT Reading.
ACT Math vs.
SAT Math: The math on the
ACT is more straightforward but, at the highest
level, more advanced. The content of the SAT
includes arithmetic, geometry, and algebra I. A
handful of items from algebra II make an
appearance, including functions, coordinate
geometry and analytic geometry. The ACT has
content that includes those areas as well as
logarithms, trigonometry, matrices, and conic
sections. The most difficult problems on the
math of the ACT are effectively more esoteric
topics, while the most difficult problems on
the math of the SAT are clever versions of more
rudimentary math. Dutiful students will likely
find the ACT Math more to their liking. “Clever
students,” especially ones who have not yet had
math beyond geometry, may perform better on the
SAT Math. ACT Essay vs.
the SAT Essay: The essay on the
ACT typically asks questions about school life,
teen issues, or educational policy; questions
that students should have opinions on. The
essay on the SAT typically asks more
philosophical questions that are best answered
with concrete examples from history,
literature, etc. Students who are comfortable
with generating detailed support will feel at
ease with the SAT essay. The ACT essay tends to
be easy for most students. Keep in mind that
the essay begins the SAT and ends the ACT. Some
prefer to "get it over with," while others are
happy not to be worn out by the
essay.
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The ACT is comprised of four
sections:
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Math: 60 questions in 60 minutes
that test mostly algebra and geometry. Many
questions are just “wordy” word problems.
Higher-level math includes logarithms,
matrices, conic sections and trigonometry. Most
people run short on time and also encounter
content with properties and equations they
simply do not know.
Reading: 40
questions in 35 minutes. Four 10-question
passages in prose fiction, social science,
humanities, and natural science. All of the
questions are definitively answerable from the
text. Most folks run short on time. It’s not
uncommon to be able to answer only three of the
four passages.
Science: 40
questions in 35 minutes. Seven 5-7 question
passages in chemistry, biology, physics,
geology, meteorology, etc. Outside knowledge is
not required, but familiarity with specific
content knowledge certainly improves speed.
Some basic science terms are tested within the
context of the questions. Most people run short
on time and often only answer 30 of 40
questions.
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Perhaps: From the standpoint of
the student, the only reason would be if one
test was taken with disappointing results and
there’s reason to think that the other test
would produce better results. Otherwise, from
the standpoint of the colleges, there is no
reason.
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HOWEVER: Several colleges,
including Yale, Amherst, and Princeton are
opting out of score choice and still asking on
their applications for students to report the
scores from every standardized test taken. As
other colleges can and will likely change their
policies at the drop of a hat, prudent students
should therefore err on the side of caution:
don’t trust score choice to hold. Treat
standardized tests as students did in years
before. Don’t take the SAT (or the ACT for that
matter - the baby looks to be thrown out with
the bath water) “just to see how it goes” or to
get a “baseline score.” Be prepared. Have an
idea of where your scores will come out before
taking the test for real. Take the PSAT
sophomore and junior year to get practice and
familiarity with the test and a prediction of
future SAT scores. If you don’t do your best
the first time out, it is not a crisis. Prep a
bit more and take the test again. But, don’t
blithely take a test, assuming you can hide a
score.
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PrepMatters College Counseling
department recently compiled an extensive list
of top college’s policies on superscoring,
along with other useful information, which one
can access here.
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You are good with words and can parse
language. You read well and don’t need Spark
Notes or an explanation to figure out what even
the densest text is saying. - SAT
You
are a slower reader but can approach the
question analytically. - SAT
If you
can get extra time on one test but not the
other, take the test you can get extra time on.
If you can get extra time on both, take
the ACT.
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Lastly, folks who can get extra time
generally feel the ACT is more their test.
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One: As
many colleges are still not placing as much
importance on the SAT Writing as on the SAT
Reading and Math, students may be able to
stumble on the SAT Writing without hurting
their admissions chances. Not so on the ACT.
The Composite score (the average of the
English, Math, Reading and Science scores)
remains the key number for admissions. A poor
English score therefore cannot be "swept under
the rug" and will materially affect the
important Composite score.
Two:
One-third of the SAT Writing score comes from
the graded essay (the section’s multiple-choice
questions account for the other two-thirds of
the score). Students, therefore, should
consider their comfort and skill with writing
timed essays and whether that will improve or
hurt their total SAT Writing score. Although
the ACT does have an essay, its score is not
incorporated into the Composite score, and
thus, in some ways, “doesn’t matter.”
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