SAT vs ACT: Which One Do I Take?
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Many students have a hard time deciding whether to take the SAT or ACT.
Sep 17, 2015
When the time comes to decide whether to take the SAT or the ACT, some students have no clue which one they should take, or if there is even a difference between the two tests. Both the SAT and ACT are nationwide college admission tests that colleges use to determine which students they would like to admit into their college. Deciding which one to take depends solely on the student’s particular academic strengths, varying between students.
The major difference between the tests is that the SAT is more vocabulary based, meaning students must know high-level vocabulary or they may be tricked by certain questions. One good thing about the SAT is that students are not penalized for wrong answers and are only tested in higher-level math which includes trigonometry and evidence-based reading and writing, with an optional essay. Some students say that the SAT is easier to prepare for since there are so many published study aides for the test and many resources available to help them do better. To learn more about the new SAT test click here.
The ACT, on the other hand, tests students on the exact same subjects, while including a science portion. Questions on the ACT are said to be more straight forward than those on the SAT. Students who are interested in science and are better in math are recommended to take the ACT. Many students find the ACT to be much easier than the SAT since unlike the SAT, colleges do not look at students’ scores for individual sections on the ACT, but rather look at their composite score. This allows students who do not score very high in one section to still manage to get a respectable composite score.
“I would prefer taking the ACT over the SAT since my tutor told me that the ACT has easier questions and I think it has easier math questions than the SAT, plus I love science so I think that I’ll do best on the ACT,” senior Maria Aguila said.
The only one who could answer the question of which test to take is the student themselves, since they are the only person truly knows what subjects they are best at. If a student is torn between the two, they should try to take both tests just to see which one they do better on and to make sure that they submit the best score to the colleges of their choice.
Pete Heidler • Dec 29, 2015 at 2:45 pm
BE IT KNOWN THAT THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE NEW SAT. For those taking the current one, I’ll explain what you need to know. First of all, the SAT DOES penalize you for wrong answers- 1/4 of a point for each answer missed. They don’t penalize you for omitted answers! On subject tests, it’s 1/3 of a point (but that’s a whole different topic). The SAT does not only test you in higher level math- it is mostly based on reasoning. On the SAT math sections, the problems become incrementally harder. For example, the first problem on a section would likely be solved using arithmetic. However, by the end of the section, the problems become much more difficult and test your knowledge of Algebra, but it never ever reaches anything calculus related. Now, this article contained some flaws regarding the ACT. The ACT science section IS NOT TESTING YOUR SCIENCE ABILITY. These tests are aptitude tests, meaning that they test your ability to solve problems, not your ability to memorize formulas or your knowledge of science. The science section on the ACT is much like a critical reading section on the SAT, but instead of passages, it will include graphs and scientific data. It is testing your ability to pull information from what’s given, and answer questions based on that data. You don’t need to be good at biology or chemistry to understand it and answer the questions- you just have to be able to read a few graphs and get the information you need. It’s a whole different skillset. That about covers it.