SAT vs. ACT: What's The Difference And Which Should You Take - Crimson Education US (2023)

FAQs

What is one difference between the ACT and the SAT answers? ›

The SAT allows more time per question for every section of the test, whereas the ACT requires you to move faster through the questions. Additionally, the ACT has more questions than the SAT, but the SAT questions often require more lengthy reading and problem solving (so they take a little longer to complete).

The ACT has more questions, with less time per question. The SAT questions are fewer in number but are more challenging and require more time to answer.

While both tests are designed to measure what you learned in high school, the SAT is a better indicator of skills you'll actually need to succeed in college and your career.

The SAT includes reading, writing and language, math (with calculator) and math (no calculator). The ACT includes English, math, reading, science and writing (optional essay). Calculator rules. The SAT includes a section in which the use of calculators is not allowed.

The SAT and ACT generally cover the same topics. Both ACT and SAT scores are used for college admissions decisions and awarding merit-based scholarships. Most colleges do not prefer one test over the other. Neither the SAT or ACT is harder than the other.

Method 1: Take Official Practice Tests

Instead of just guessing whether you'll be better at the ACT or SAT, the best way to decide is to actually take each test and then compare your scores. To do this, you'll need to find an official practice test for both the ACT and SAT.

How Many Times Should You Take the ACT? If you're not satisfied with your scores, you can retake the ACT. ACT Inc., which administers the exam, lets you take the test up to 12 times, though it's best to take it no more than 2-3 times.

Students can take the SAT as many times as they want. We recommend that they take it at least twice—in the spring of their junior year and the fall of their senior year. Most students get a higher score the second time, and most colleges consider a student's highest SAT score when making admission decisions.

Both tests are about the same length, but the SAT features fewer, longer sections while the ACT is broken up into more, smaller sections. If you have a hard time staying focused during long tasks, the ACT is the better choice, but if you get distracted by constant changes, the SAT is a more natural fit.

Most colleges require either the SAT or ACT and express no preference for either test. That said, significant percentages of students at selective colleges are submitting scores from both tests when they apply.

Do you have to take the ACT to get into college? ›

Students with an ACT test score qualify for more scholarships. Even test-optional colleges often require a test score when awarding merit-based scholarships. Without an ACT score, you could be missing out on thousands of dollars in scholarship money.

As of 2019, the SAT is officially more popular than the ACT with 55% of the market share. More than 2.2 million students in the class of 2019 took the SAT compared to about 1.8 million students who took the ACT.

The main college entrance exams are the ACT and the SAT. The CLT is a newer alternative that is accepted by a small number of colleges. Colleges and universities, especially highly selective schools, may also require SAT Subject Tests.

There are several reasons that the SAT is considered a more valuable admissions tool than your GPA. The most obvious is that the SAT is a standardized test. While your GPA compares you to the rest of your school, your SAT score compares you to the rest of the country.

When it comes to the GPA and the ACT, students often wonder which one is more important. Although college admissions officers often say that they give much more weight to a student's GPA, even they will admit that your ACT score is of considerable importance.

Difficulty Depends on the Student

While there are similar mathematical concepts on both tests, students might find one or the other more difficult based on their own math skills. This is true of the tests themselves as well. The ACT isn't harder than the SAT or vice versa, despite what the myths say.

Writing (Optional)

Especially with no provided basic math formulas, this could be their “hardest section of the ACT.” But not every student struggles in math – they could have a hard time in Science, English, or Reading.

Do You Feel Confident in the Content? Obviously, it's not a good idea to take the ACT® unless you have a good grasp on the content that will be tested. The ACT® Reading and ACT® Science sections are both the hardest and easiest to prepare for.

Each SAT Essay consists of one passage between 650 and 750 words that you will read and then respond to. You will have 50 minutes to complete the SAT Essay. The purpose of the SAT Essay is to assess your ability to analyze an author's argument.

What is the easiest month to take the ACT? ›

Origin of the Myth

But here's the thing: While there were studies done that showed higher scores in one month than another, those months changed year to year. First experts would cry “December is easiest! Take it in December!” and a few years later they'd swear “May is by far easier!”

About half of all high-school students who took the ACT will choose to retest at least once. 57% of students who retake the ACT see a score improvement, and on average, students who took the ACT more than once had a Composite score that was 2.9 points higher than students who just took it once.

How many times CAN I take the SAT/ACT? Technically, you can take the ACT up to 12 times and the SAT as many times as you want.

Studying for the SAT in a month is possible, though it's recommended that you spend 10 to 20 hours per week over the course of two or three months prepping for the SAT.

How much does an SAT retake cost? You must pay $60 each time you register for the SAT, regardless of how many times you take or have taken the test. Eligible students can receive SAT fee waivers. These let you take the SAT twice for free.

We recommend you spend 6–20 hours preparing for your first SAT. Make sure you reserve enough time to take at least one full-length practice test (about 4 hours if you practice the essay as well), and give yourself time to review the concepts you're struggling with.

The downside of taking the SAT or ACT to practice for life after high school, though, is that the tests can cause intense anxiety that can negatively impact scores, the same scores which many colleges still consider important to determining whether to admit an applicant. 3.) They don't predict overall college success.

If the college does not require the test, then generally NO, it will not hurt your application. But know that without test scores other parts of your application will become more important. This includes your GPA, your college essay, awards and achievements, references, and any extracurricular activities you include.

Standardized tests are a poor measure of college readiness and intelligence, which diminishes their overall credibility. Standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, do not test in every field of education. Therefore, it is unfair as most students tend to accelerate better in certain classes over others.

Harvard, like the rest of the Ivy League and most other colleges, requires either the SAT or ACT for admission. They have no preference between them, so choose the test that's a better fit for you, thoroughly prepare for it, and plan to take it multiple times.

Do Ivy League schools want ACT or SAT? ›

All eight Ivy League schools will continue to have test-optional policies for the 2022-23 application cycle. While high SAT scores are an asset, they're just one metric that colleges consider. Students should aim to score in the 75th percentile among admitted students.

College admission tests like the SAT and ACT are standardized tests typically taken in your junior or senior year. Colleges use scores from these tests to help them make admission decisions. Each college has its own admission processes and policies, and they use scores differently. Here are the facts you need to know.

A common myth is that elite colleges prefer the SAT over the ACT. Or that the ACT is preferred by colleges in your state. In reality, all colleges and universities that require standardized testing accept both the ACT and SAT.

Some students may be interested in taking both the SAT and ACT — and you certainly can, if you wish to do so — but it's generally best to avoid doing this. For one, you'll have to study for two separate exams, each of which has its own structure, content, and questions.

Yes. Students can attend college without taking the SAT test. Some schools require the ACT test.

According to a College Board study, only 24% of the state's 2021 graduating class took the SAT, compared with 67% in the previous class, most of whom took it before shutdowns.

Conclusion: Why Take the SAT? Taking the SAT (or ACT) seems to be the decision most college-bound students make. There is, in fact, very good reason for this pattern; as discussed above, these tests can help you find your way into college, get a scholarship to pay for college, and even land a job down the road.

Is ACT Easier Than SAT? Since the ACT's tone is more straightforward, it makes the ACT a better fit for students who like to move quickly through an exam or who historically have struggled with reading.

The GRE is one of the most challenging examinations in the world, and it is meant to assess individuals who want to study overseas. It is mainly used for master's and Ph.D. programs at foreign universities.

GRE (Graduate Record Examination)

Owned and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), GRE is among the world's most difficult exams. The exam is administered both online and in person. As a standardized test, GRE measures the overall academic readiness of students who want to attend graduate school.

What test must you take in order to get into most graduate colleges? ›

GRE. The GRE (Graduate Record Exam) is the most common general knowledge test for masters program admission that universities require from grad school applicants. Results from this exam are required or at least recommended by thousands of educational institutes worldwide.

SAT, ACT, and other tests will never become more important than an admission essay. It's the only assignment helping the admissions committee assess each applicant's personality. Fortunately, you don't need to have exceptional writing skills to get the acceptance letter.

Colleges will look at either weighted or unweighted GPAs in your application. They do tend to prefer weighted, because it gives more information about the difficulty of your classes, but don't worry if your school uses an unweighted scale.

For one, admissions officers look at more than just SAT scores when considering applicants. If you have an impressive GPA, deep involvement in extracurricular activities or volunteer work, and stellar recommendation letters, your SAT score will not be weighed as heavily when they are reviewing your application.

In general, admissions officers want to see more As than Bs, so having an unweighted GPA of above 3.5 can make a big difference.

An unweighted GPA is the most popular grade point average reporting scale. It is used in high schools and colleges across much of America.

Typically a 3.5-4.0 GPA, which means an A- or A average, is expected for admission to top colleges. However, you may be able to gain acceptance to a less selective school with a GPA that's as low as a 2.0 or C- average.

The major differences between the ACT and the SAT include the fact that the ACT also includes a section on science, and it's writing section is optional.

The SAT is made up of 154 questions, while the ACT has 215. The SAT requires more writing and problem solving, offering students more time to complete each section. The ACT questions, however, are more straightforward and require less time to answer.

No, they do not. There are several versions with different sections in a different order at all times. It's only one reasom why filling in all the required info exactly correctly is so important. The sheets are scored electronically.

Is the ACT or SAT math harder? ›

Section Summary: The material tested on the SAT and ACT is almost exactly the same, as are the formats. The ACT math material is slightly more challenging, but not by much. The science section on the ACT has nothing at all to do with science.

There are four potential benefits to taking both the ACT and the SAT: you'll have an extra chance to excel, prepping for one can help you do better on the other, some schools might appreciate seeing both scores, and you'll get more test dates to choose from.

The scores on the SAT and ACT allow them to narrow down the playing field and make decisions on acceptance. This also makes your individual score extremely important. The schools that are receiving 75,000 applications don't have time to read every document, transcript, or essay.

Standardized tests are a poor measure of college readiness and intelligence, which diminishes their overall credibility. Standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, do not test in every field of education. Therefore, it is unfair as most students tend to accelerate better in certain classes over others.

For the most part, the ACT and SAT questions fall into a randomized level of difficulty. You might start off with the hardest question and end with a no-brainer. However, there can be an increase in difficulty within a question type. This may be where the core of this myth comes from.

SAT Reading vs ACT Reading

The SAT Reading test contains more historical text, whereas the ACT is mostly contemporary. The SAT Reading test requires students to support some answer choices with evidence from the passage; the ACT does not.

So, ultimately, guessing C (or any letter!) will give you the correct answer only a statistical 25% of the time (20% on the math section). Which means it's NOT true that choosing C will give you a better rate of success than choosing any other letter for your blind guessing.

Most people (and tutors) tell students that, if they have no idea on a question, to just guess answer choice “C” — the middle answer on most multiple choice tests.

Sometimes it seems like “C”—or its equivalent, “H”—is the most common answer choice, but this is merely a myth. In fact, the answer choice orders on the ACT and SAT are generated by a computer and are entirely random.

The SAT is designed to test basic high school math, from courses up to and including Algebra II. Students who wish to demonstrate more advanced skills may consider taking the ACT, which covers trigonometry, or the two SAT Math Subject Tests.

Should I take the ACT if I'm bad at math? ›

Remember though, on both the SAT and ACT, the questions are designed so that technically you should be able to solve them without a calculator at all. Practically speaking though, if you aren't confident in your math skills to solve problems quickly without one, then the ACT is a better bet for you.

Content Covered by the ACT Mathematics Test

Demonstrate knowledge of real and complex number systems. Students will understand and reason with numerical quantities in many forms, including integer and rational exponents, and vectors and matrices.