In addition, here are some other factors to consider when deciding whether to take the ACT or SAT.
Content
The breadth and difficulty level of math on the ACT and SAT is the same. A student who struggles in math may struggle equally with either test, and a student who excels in math can ace the math section on either test with ease.
The SAT reading and writing sections are considered more difficult than the ACT reading, English, and optional Writing test. The SAT has an added emphasis on vocabulary, whereas the ACT does not test vocabulary at all. Additionally, the SAT essay prompt is a more open ended philosophical question, while the ACT essay prompt asks students to take a stance on an issue that directly relates to school life. For this reason, the SAT essay is often considered harder than the ACT essay.
The SAT has no science portion, while the ACT is 1/4 science. The ACT science questions test students' abilities to interpret experimental results, interpret graphs and charts, recognize patterns in experimental data, and understand scientific methods. Facts from biology, chemistry, and physics are not tested, however, a cursory knowledge of science always helps. Students who do not like or do well in the sciences may find the ACT much harder than the SAT.
Scoring
ACT scoring is more lenient than SAT scoring. On the ACT, nothing is subtracted from your raw score if you answer a question incorrectly, so there is no guessing penalty. On the SAT, it is better to leave a question blank than to answer it incorrectly, because wrong answers are penalized and -1/4 of a point, whereas blank answers are 0.
For the SAT, 2/3 of the final composite score is determined by performance on the verbal reasoning sections, and only 1/3 is determined by mathematical ability. However, for the ACT, 1/2 of the composite score is verbal based, and 1/2 is mathematical/scientific reasoning based.
The essays are scored on the same scale.
Structure
The tests take the same amount of time to complete, but there are more questions on the ACT than the SAT, and so there is more of a time crunch on the ACT, which makes the test harder for some. However, the ACT has only 4 answer choices per question (except on the math section which has 5) and the SAT has 5 choices per question (except on some math questions that are essentially fill in the blank).
Score Reporting
For the SAT, all of your high school SAT scores (including SAT II subject test scores) can be seen by college admission committees. However, for the ACT, you may choose which scores to send, if any.
Which Test Should You Take?
The only way to figure out which test will give you a higher score is to take one or two practice exams for each of the ACT and SAT. If you do significantly better on one exam than the other, you should focus your test prep accordingly.
For example, suppose you get a 29 composite score on an ACT practice test, and a 1750 composite on an SAT practice test. For the ACT, a score of 29 is the 94th percentile, but for the SAT, a 1750 is only the 75th percentile. In this case, you might want to register and study for the ACT, rather than the SAT.
If your academic abilities are skewed so that you do much better on verbal tests than math tests, you should take the SAT, since most of the score is determined by verbal reasoning questions.
Sources of Practice Tests and Exam Questions
- Barron's SAT 2400: Aiming for the Perfect Score
- The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd Edition
- 11 Practice Tests for the SAT & PSAT, 2010 Edition
- Kaplan 12 Practice Tests for the SAT 2010
