ACT vs SAT

ACT OR SAT WHICH IS BETTER TO TAKE

Million of student take ACT or SAT every year to gain admission into their desired universities and colleges. For many high school students, picking a college entrance test has become a multiple-choice question.A lot of student are confused about which test is right for you usually colleges treat both test equally.So when majority of colleges don’t prefer sat over act or vice versa how to decide which to take. well the answer lies in a student personal preference,comfort and skill level.Before proceeding please read act vs sat which discuss the difference between the two test.

EXPERIENCE FROM PRACTICE TEST

The best technique is to take the PSAT or PACT or take practice test of sat and act under test like condition and observe on which test your performance is comparatively better and with which format you feel comfortable with. If you’re undecided about taking the ACT or SAT, you may feel more strongly about one or the other once you become familiar with the format of both.

The ESSAY

The act essay is optional while sat essay is compulsory.The SAT essay are abstract and open ended while act essay are more specific,concrete and high school centric. While the SAT asks students to reflect on abstract ideas or moral values such as the value of community or the nature of heroism, ACT questions often focus on the kind of issues that high school students are likely to encounter, e.g. “Should schools implement a dress code,” or “Should students be required to maintain a C average in order to obtain their driver’s license?”. For helping you decide better here are a few point to consider about yourself while making choice.

TAKE ACT

* Your Math skills are significantly stronger than your verbal skills: the SAT only covers through Algebra II; the ACT covers through Trigonometry while SAT doesn’t.
* SAT question are tricky while ACT questions are straight forward so if are not good with finding trap inside the question consider taking ACT.
* You have narrow vocabulary i.e you do have good vocabulary but do not possess the kind of vocabulary SAT demands.And in many cases lack of vocabulary is the reason for low sat score for even an A grade student.
* You’re a fast reader. This is very important: the biggest issue that most students have with ACT Reading Comp. is the time limit. Even if you don’t read a lot on your own, chances are you’ll do decently if you can get through all four passage/question sets.
* You’re a straightforward, detail-oriented thinker.
* Want to try your luck ACT is for you there is no penalty for a incorrect answer in ACT unlike SAT where 1/4th point is deducted for an incorrect answer.
* ACT is curriculum based and that is the reason few student perform well on ACT than Indicator of innate ability SAT.
* If you are good with grammar. ACT concentrates on grammar, punctuation and syntax.
* You are good science student then act is good since it has a science reasoning section.
* There are 215 questions on ACT as compared to 170 SAT questions which means less average time per question.
* Not a great essay writer ACT essay section is optional so if your chosen college don’t require essay ACT might be a option.



TAKE SAT

* Your Verbal skills are significantly stronger than your Math skills: the SAT only covers through Algebra II; the ACT covers through Trigonometry.
* You have a strong sense of logic.
* You have a large vocabulary and if you don’t you won’t bother spending months in making one.
* You have an strong innate ability the ability of logical reasoning.
* If you want to avoid science and trigonometry, stick with the SAT.



Consider college requirement

Usually the trend is that Midwest student take and report ACT score while student on the coastal region take SAT and use that to apply there.so you might want to consider the geography of your desired colleges as factor. colleges swear they don’t prefer one over the other.

FOR LEARNING DISABLED

Counselors say that students with learning disabilities that make it difficult to process information may do better on the ACT.Because SAT is tricky,puzzle like while ACT is more knowledge based and straight forward.

The Cost

The SAT exam costs $45. The ACT exam costs $32 – so it is cheaper UNLESS you take the ACT with the optional writing test as it then costs $47 which makes it marginally more expensive.(please refer official site for an accurate exam fee’s details).

MORAL OF THE STORY

In a Nutshell the bottom line is to figure out whether your top school has any particular preference for one test over the other. You can do this by looking on its website or asking your college counselor. If you’re planning on applying to highly-selective colleges, you’ll probably want to take SAT. Otherwise, you should pick the test you feel most comfortable with.