Sophomore To-Do List: Figure out Which Test (ACT vs SAT) Better Suits your Strengths!

While for most students the junior year is the critical year for standardized testing, sophomore year is the time to start planning and make a standardized testing schedule.  Each individual is unique and requires a different plan of action to be successful when it comes to testing. 

While each year there are more and more colleges joining the Test Optional Club (see www.fairtest.org), the majority of students will need the SAT or the ACT to apply to their list of potential schools. Traditionally, the SAT had been favored by East Coast schools and the ACT aimed at Midwestern students, but today THERE IS NO SCHOOL IN THE COUNTRY THAT WILL NOT ACCEPT EITHER THE SAT OR ACT!  Therefore students should determine which test best suits their strengths and then focus their efforts on doing the best possible job on that one test.  Spending time prepping for two tests limits the amount of time a student can focus on either one thereby hurting his or her potential performance on both exams. 

Step 1:  Figure out which test, the SAT or ACT, better suits your strengths.  Twenty-five percent of students favor the SAT, twenty-five percent favor the ACT, and fifty-percent show no preference. If students have taken the PSAT and the PLAN (a pre-ACT exam) as a sophomore, it is possible to compare the scores on the two tests and figure out which one is preferable.  If the student did not have the opportunity to take these tests, however, then the thoughts below may be helpful in determining which test will be a better fit.  If the student and family is eager to take a more scientific approach to determining which test is best, there is the option to take Princeton Review's free SAT and ACT Tests and see where the student scores better.  Both are offered in person and online (see www.princetonreview.com).

In general.  The ACT is more straightforward, is based more on school curricula, and attempts to measure mastery of key concepts.  The SAT, on the other hand, tends to be a bit trickier and tests more general reasoning skills. In addition, many test prep tutors report that the ACT is more test-prep friendly.  Very bright underachievers often do better on the SAT while extremely conscientious students tend to favor the ACT.  In general, boys do better on the SAT, girls better on the ACT. 

Random Guessing. The ACT does not penalize for wrong answers (thus students should be advised to take a stab at all questions), whereas the SAT subtracts a fraction of a point for wrong answers requiring some strategy on the part of the student for when to guess versus leave an answer blank.

Timing. Timing is more challenging on the ACT; students have four longer sections (Reading, Math, English, Science) that they work on one at a time.  The SAT, on the other hand, has 10 shorter sections mixed up.  Students do a little math, then a little reading, then a little writing, etc.  Slow processors tend to do better on the SAT; they can get get bogged down and run out of time more easily on the ACT.

Reading/English.  Good readers and students with strong vocabularies tend to do well on the SAT.

Math.  The math on the ACT is more advanced.  The ACT includes Algebra 2 and some Trigonometry, whereas the SAT focuses on Algebra 1, Geometry, and a little Algebra 2.  The math questions on the ACT progress from easy to difficult, whereas the SAT questions are all mixed up in terms of difficulty.  In addition, the SAT has a grid-in section where students have to come up with their own answer versus choosing among five multiple-choice options.

Science.  The ACT has a Science Reasoning section while the SAT does not.  While labeled as Science, this section is really more about reasoning (reading graphs, interpreting data) than real science.  Therefore, students who have not had strong science backgrounds can still excel if they read, comprehend, and reason well.

Writing.  Both tests offer a writing section, in which students must respond to a prompt and write an essay but this section is mandatory for the SAT and optional for the ACT.  The Writing section comes first on the SAT and comes last on the ACT.  In addition, the prompts differ somewhat on the two tests.  SAT test prompts tend to be more intellectual (i.e., is popular culture the strongest influence on a young person's identity? is money the key to a person's happiness?), while the ACT prompts seem to be more practical (i.e., should students be able to choose their reading materials for English class? should high school start times be moved back to better accommodate high school students' circadian rhythms?).  Because most selective colleges require the optional ACT writing section, the ACT will likely not allow students to avoid writing an essay.

If there isn’t a clear winner between the ACT and SAT for a student, don’t fret.  The important thing is not which test the student decides to take, but rather that he or she makes a decision to focus on one, putting his or her foot forward on that one exam.