ACT vs SAT

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Coke vs. Pepsi, Ford vs. Chevrolet, ACT vs SAT. Take your pick. To colleges and universities, it makes no difference. Each exam is given approximately six to eight times a year, mostly to high school juniors and seniors, both within the US and internationally. Over 3 million combined ACT and SAT tests were administered to seniors in 2012. Colleges will accept scores from either test, so students don't need to take both of them. Yet as similar as the tests are (both have sections on English, Math and Reading comprehension), there are some subtle and not-so-subtle differences.

The SAT, administered by the College Board, consists of four sections covering three subjects: Reading comprehension, English grammar, and Mathematics, one math section without a calculator and another math section with a calculator. Students receive a combined English/Reading sub-score (between 400-800) and a Math sub-score (between 400-800) which are added to generate their overall SAT score (between 800-1,600). 

The ACT, created by American College Testing, also has four sections, but includes a Science section in place of the non-calculator math section of the SAT. Students receive four sub-scores, one for English, Math, Reading and Science (each between 0-36) along with their total score, which is the average of the four individual sub-scores.

There are quite a differences between the two tests, including:

  • Half of the SAT score is Mathematics, but only a quarter of the ACT score is Math

  • The ACT has a Science section, which technically isn't as much science as it is interpreting data (graphs and charts), although basic knowledge of science is required for some questions

  • Usually the SAT will contain a Reading passage written in the 18th or 19th century, which can be challenging to comprehend

  • Students have less time per question on the ACT than the SAT - the ACT is more of a sprint, but some consider their questions to be slightly less challenging than the ones on the SAT

The College Board and American College Testing together created an equivalency table which "converts" a score from one test into a corresponding equivalent score on the other exam. Sample questions can be found through both of their websites.

LINKS

ACT: https://www.act.org/

SAT: https://www.collegeboard.org/

Concordance Tables for converting scores between tests:

https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf