It’s a tough choice because the tests are very different.
Here are comments from Your Score Booster SAT / ACT test prep tutoring, followed by an article on the topic...
Your Score Booster analysis
The ACT has a science section; the SAT does not. Don't be too intimidated by the science itself; it's not that difficult, and most of the information is provided in a passage. Your Score Booster provides tips on doing well on the science section. But the sections require students to work very fast, getting through seven sections on science (40 questions) in 35 minutes. Students must be quick thinkers.
The ACT writing section consists of several passages, and students have to correct the grammar.
The SAT writing section has individual questions that are not part of a larger passage, except for six questions in a 35-question section.
Again, the ACT requires more speed, as students must answer 75 questions in 45 minutes.
For two writing sections of the SAT, students must answer 35 questions in 25 minutes and 14 questions in 10 minutes, respectively (a total of 49 questions in 35 minutes).
The writing section on the ACT is more straightforward than the writing section on the SAT.
The ACT tests for style, whereas the SAT doesn't do so. For example, students should recognize an academic style of writing shouldn't include colloquial phrases. The ACT also tests for knowledge of the use of apostrophes -- pretty easy. The SAT tests more for misplaced modifiers and complicated use of parallelism. I have run some SAT questions by former colleagues who edit a major newspaper in New York, and they have questioned the validity of the questions. But most of the SAT writing questions have a clear answer. Both tests check for correct subject-verb matching, verb tenses, redundancies and idiom usage.
With some tips and practice, the writing section is one of the easiest to master on both the SAT and ACT.
The ACT math section deals with trigonometry and imaginary numbers, which are not included on the SAT. Again, the ACT requires students to work very quickly and to work longer without a break between sections, answering 60 questions in 60 minutes.
The ACT math section is all multiple choice. The SAT is mostly multiple choice but does include 10 questions in which the students provide an answer that can be any number from 0 to 9999, including decimals and fractions.
The SAT gives students more time to answer questions. One section includes 20 questions to be completed in 25 minutes. But the SAT questions can be trickier and require students to think outside the box.
The bottom line is that the ACT requires more knowledge of the math and has more math topics but is more straightforward. The SAT only covers a limited ranged of math topics but is trickier.
Again, the SAT reading section gives students more time but the questions are trickier. Students must rush through the ACT reading section.
Here's an article on the topic of the SAT vs. ACT...
By
Lynn O'Shaughnessy Should your teenager take the SAT or ACT test?
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Teenagers who earn high ACT scores are more likely to:
- Possess a strong memory.
- Be fast readers.
- Process information swiftly.
Teenagers who earn high SAT scores are more likely to:
- Possess a strong vocabulary.
- Be a strong reader.
- Enjoy test-taking strategies.
Teenagers who ace the ACT are able to speed through the test. The ACT, for instance, requires a student to answer 40 questions in the reading section in 35 minutes. In comparison, the SAT reading section seems downright leisurely. Students receive 70 minutes to answer 54 SAT reading questions.
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Some students like the ACT because it’s more straight forward. The ACT, for instance, doesn’t contain obscure vocabulary and the reading passages aren’t tough. In comparison, the SAT reading section is loaded with tricky questions. Even though the SAT typically directs students to the very line in a reading passage where the answer can be found, pinpointing the correct answer can still be tortuous.
Read the full article…
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