SAT/ACT Comparison; Which test is for you?

The ACT is the other college placement test. It is accepted by almost all colleges and universities including the most selective schools, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford.... Check the college admissions websites for the schools that are of interest to find out the tests they require for admissions. Also visit www.fairtest.org for the schools that don't require standardized tests or have de-emphasized their importance in the admissions process.

Test Description
The ACT and the SAT are timed paper and pencil multiple choice tests with a handwritten essay. The SAT is a critical thinking reasoning test that employs arcane language which makes the SAT difficult for many students. The SAT requires mental quickness and the ability to solve puzzles. The ACT is a straight forward curriculum based test that requires reasoning skills. The SAT is scored on a scale of 200-800 and the ACT on a scale of 1-36. The ACT gives a composite score that doesn't incorporate the score of the optional writing section. The ACT's writing section is optional and the score is not reported as part of the composite score.

Examples of SAT sentence completion questions.

Dangerously high winds _______ attempts to begin the space shuttle mission on schedule, delaying the launch by nearly a week.
(A) thwarted (B) forfeited (C) implemented (D) discharged (E) redoubled
Answer: A

Actors in melodramas often emphasized tense moments by being ______ , for example, raising their voices and pretending to swoon.
(A) imperious (B) inscrutable (C) convivial (D) histrionic (E) solicitous
Answer: D
(The Official Guide to the SAT)

The ACT doesn't have sentence completions questions and instead presents five passages with underlined (bold in this blog) words and phrases. The test presents alternatives to the underlined parts and asks the test taker to pick the best answer.

ACT sample question

For some people, traditional American Indian music is associated and connected with high penetrating vocals accompanied by a steady drumbeat.
A. NO CHANGE
B. connected by some of them
C. linked by association
D. associated
Answer:associated
Preparing for the ACT


Both the SAT and ACT are similar from the perspective that they are designed to test a high school student's academic skills and their knowledge of a standard high school curriculum experienced by college bound juniors. The SAT and ACT both test English language usage, writing, reading, and math. In addition the ACT has a science section which, "measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problem solving skills required in the natural sciences." Preparing for the ACT

Reporting Scores to Colleges
The SAT is scored on a scale of 200-800 and the ACT on a scale of 1-36. The ACT gives a composite score that doesn't incorporate the score of the optional writing section. The ACT and the now the SAT allows students to pick the test scores by the date of the test that they send to colleges. The student may pick the specific SAT subject tests that they want sent.

Time Allotted
The SAT allots more time per question for fewer questions than the ACT.
The SAT test is a total of 3 hours and 20 minutes, 170 questions plus the essay (25 minutes). The ACT test including the optional essay is 3 hours and 15 minutes and has 215 questions plus the essay (30 minutes). The SAT critical reading section has 67 questions with 70 minutes to complete them (63 sec. each). The ACT English section is 75 questions with 45 minutes (36 sec. each) to complete them and the reading section has 40 questions with 35 minutes to complete them (52.5 sec. each). English and reading sections combined total 115 questions with 80 minutes to complete them (41.7 sec each). The SAT math section has 54 questions with 70 minutes (78 sec. each) to complete them and the ACT has 60 questions with 60 minutes to complete them (60 sec. each).

Pacing
The SAT organizes its questions by level of difficulty except in the critical reading section. About 87-88% 0f the critical reading and math questions are categorized by the CollegeBoard as easy and medium difficulty. If the test taker answers all of the easy and medium questions correctly and leaves all of the hard questions blank they will score between 660-740 on critical reading and between 660-720 on math. This means that the test taker who is shooting for a score that is in the above ranges could allocate all of their time to the easy and medium questions giving them about 12% more time to work those problems. The ACT does not arrange their questions in order of difficulty making pacing on the ACT more of a challenge.

Guessing
The ACT does not penalize for random guessing where the SAT deducts 1/4 point for every wrong answer in the multiple choice sections. The SAT typically gives five answer choices and the ACT four choices, making random guessing on the ACT more advantageous than on the SAT.

Essay
The SAT writing prompt is less straight forward and the questions are more esoteric than the ACT prompt. The test taker is given 25 minutes by the SAT and 30 minutes by the ACT to write their essay.

The following is the essay prompt from the first practice test in The Official SAT Study Guide

To change is to risk something, making us feel insecure. Not to change is a bigger risk, through we seldom feel that way. There is no choice but to change. People, however, cannot be motivated to change from the outside. All of our motivation comes from within.

Adapted from Ward Sybouts, Planning in School Administration: A Handbook

Assignment: What motivates people to change? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. (The Official SAT Study Guide)

ACT Assessment Writing Test Prompt
Many high school libraries use some of their limited funding to subscribe to popular magazines with articles that are interesting to students. Despite limited funding, some educators support this practice because they think having these magazines available encourages student to read. Other educators think school libraries should not use limited funds to subscribe to these magazines because they may not be related to academic subjects. In your opinion, should high school libraries subscribe to popular magazines?

In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position. (The ACT, Preparing for the ACT, 2008/2009)

Practice Tests
The ACT provides a free booklet, Preparing for the ACT. The PDF file can be downloaded for free from the ACT website at: http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/preparing.pdf
The file has a full length practice test and answer explanations.
Additional practice test are available by purchasing, The Official ACT Prep Guide from the Makers of the ACT.

The SAT also provides a free booklet, The SAT Preparation Booklet. The PDF file can be downloaded for free from the CollegeBoard website at: http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/sat/sat-preparation-booklet.pdf The Official SAT Study Guide has eight official practice tests with preparation advice and answer explanations.
CollegeBoard offers an SAT Official Online Course with six official practice test, answer explanations and essay scoring.

ONLY TAKE PRACTICE TESTS WRITTEN BY THE ACT AND SAT.
Tests that you find in test preparation books and courses written by test preparation company only approximate the difficulty and nuances of the test questions written by the test publishers.

Watch for a blog entry coming soon on preparing for the SAT and ACT.