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The SAT or the ACT

Author: himaniverma

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My daughter came to me with a big dilemma.

Was she to take the SAT's(Scholastic Aptitude Test or Scholastic Assessment Test) or the ACT's (originally the American College Testing Program) after her 12th?
Which one was better for admissions in the universities abroad?
That set me thinking, then pondering. What is the difference and what is the similarity? How does a student choose?

The SAT and ACT are both standardized tests and are both very significant for college admissions processes. But that is where all common information emds.

Unfortunately that is where you should begin to find out more.

The BASICS about SAT & ACT -A must know

The SAT

The SAT is the test used by most colleges to help decide whether to admit students and a majority of colleges abroad require you to take the SAT.
It is the most well-known but the ACT is close behind.
There are 3 sections: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. Each section is scored from 200 to 800. The lowest score you can get on the SAT is a 600; the highest score is a 2400.

Along with the SAT your GPA, transcript, recommendations, letters of recommendation, interviews, and personal essays are equally important.
All U.S. colleges and universities will accept SAT scores in lieu of ACT scores.
A perfect score for the SAT is 2400 points, while a perfect score for the ACT is 36.
The SAT's overall score is calculated by adding together the scores of its sections.

The ACT

The ACT also a standardized test is now recognized by most universities in the US.
It has four multiple-choice subject tests covering English, Math, Reading, and Science.
These are designed to evaluate what you have learnt at high school instead of critical thinking skills as in the SAT.
You get 2 hours and 55 minutes of in the AC while the SAT is nearly 4 hours.
From a cost perspective, the basic ACT which is about $ 30 is less expensive than the SAT which starts at $45.
The ACT's have a composite score which is an average of their overall subject scores- ranging from 1 to 36
The ACT also includes an optional 30-minute writing test Just like the SAT this is also designed to test how well you can plan and express in a short time.

What we found after all this research was that neither test was superior to the other. So while there was no rocket science to prove it, but decidedly one had to make a choice based on one's strengths.

The tests are different in their format and what they contain. One has to make a choice based on that where you think you can be at your best.

Vocabulary and Writing: The SAT is much more stressed on Vocabulary and includes a compulsory writing section. The ACT test is grammar-centric, and has instead an option for the writing section. The essay is an optional.
Math: The SAT's math sections cover algebra and geometry, and questions often require thinking across sections. It is far more simpler in the ACT, but also includes trigonometry.
Science: The SAT has no science questions so to say, except sometimes a passage which may be science based. The ACT's are said to have a scientific section, but again you do not have to be Einstein to figure them out. Very often they are no more than a scientific based passage with reasoning questions to follow.
Incorrect answers are penalized on the SAT but not on the ACT . You are free to take pot shots at all answers.
The tricky part of the SAT is the unknown and unscored section which is an experimental section put in by the examiners.
One great advantage of the ACT is that you can take the test several times and choose which score to submit. Which of course you can't keep doing in the SAT.

At the end

Universities in the SAT East and WestCoastsMidwest and mountain regions. prefer the SAT while the ACT is mainly taken by students wanting to go to universities in the

What to look out for

Given all the pro's and cons remember it is really only a matter of choice.Carefully examine your application requirements before registering for either test. Beware of tricky wording which tells you that most U.S. colleges and universities "accept" ACT results. This does not mean that these schools will take the ACT in place of the SAT-but that they are merely willing to look at your ACT score in addition to your SAT score.

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