Should my son or daughter take the SAT or ACT? Part 1
If you’re not clear on the difference between the SAT and the ACT, you’re not alone. A lot of my tutoring students and their parents ask me which one they should take, which one is easier, and so on.
The big picture answer is, they’re both about the same difficulty, and almost all colleges these days will accept both. So you don’t really have to sweat it.
But if you want to know a little more information, over the next few Test Prep Information posts, I’ll explain the differences between the ACT and the SAT. Then I’ll give my recommendations for which students should take which test, and which test I prefer overall.
In this post, I’ll discuss the slight differences in material covered by the SAT versus the ACT. Both tests cover mostly the same material. They include high school math through Algebra II, with a few pre-calculus/trigonometry problems thrown in. They cover critical reading skills and analysis. They both require you to know grammar.
But there are a few differences in the material covered by the ACT and SAT.
The ACT Science Section
The ACT includes a Science section, even though there’s no science section on the SAT. The ACT science section is tough unless you prepare specifically for it. I was a physics major in college, so I’m pretty good at science. But the science section was my worst section when I took the ACT.
The reason why the science section is so tough is that it’s not like other standardized tests your son or daughter probably took in the past. It doesn’t require you to have any specific science background knowledge—instead, it requires you to think through concepts that you’re probably not familiar with from school.
It’s actually kind of like the reading section—you read a passage of material you’ve never heard before, and you’re supposed to apply critical thinking skills you learned in school to understand new material you haven’t seen before.
It’s actually not that tough if you’re prepared for it. But if you aren’t, you could be in trouble. (Unlike, for example, the math section. If you are an A+ math student in all the advanced high school math classes, you’ll probably do fine on the math section even if you don’t prepare. That’s not true on science.)
The SAT Essay
The other difference in material covered is in the essay. While both the SAT and the ACT include a written essay section, in the ACT the essay is optional. And even if you take it, it doesn’t affect your so-called “composite” ACT score—the big number at the end that says how well you did overall.
In the SAT, your essay does affect your composite score. So if you’re a very strong writer, you might consider taking the SAT instead of the ACT—and if you’re a weak writer, you might favor the ACT.
(Although, even if you’re not great at writing essays, the truth is that if you know a few tricks and you have good grammar, you can still get a great score on your essay for either test. And even if you’re a strong writer, you have to know what the test graders are looking for to do well on the essay. I’ll talk more about this in a later post.)
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