Chapter 8: SAT vs. ACT
Written by Kaashvi, Dartmouth College
Welcome back to The College Countdown! If this is your first time stopping by our blog, I am Kaashvi, your friendly neighborhood college admissions enthusiast and your guide through this series. Whether you’re a returning reader or a newcomer, I’m pumped to have you join us for this wild ride. After last week’s guide on securing glowing letters of recommendation from your teachers, we are in a great place to kick things off with our next article. In today’s episode, we are weighing out the pros and cons of the SAT versus the ACT.
With schools like Dartmouth, Yale, Brown and MIT jumping back on the test-required bandwagon, standardized testing is making a comeback, and this time as it appears, it might be here to stay. On the flip side, with schools like Caltech and the University of California system opting for test-blind policies and others like Columbia going permanently test-optional, it’s clear that the landscape of college admissions is more varied than ever. It’s already stressful for high school students to navigate this jumbled bag of testing requirements, but when you throw in the added challenge of deciding between the SAT and the ACT, it becomes downright overwhelming.
Don’t worry, this is where I come in—one thread at a time, we’ll sort this tangled mess out. Today, we’ll look at what each test is about, break down what makes them different and then, figure out which test plays to your strengths. By the end of this piece, you’ll have a better idea of whether you’re Team SAT or Team ACT.
SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) and ACT (American College Testing) are both standardized tests that are widely used by colleges not just in the United States, but also in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, to assess your readiness for college-level coursework and to make decisions about admissions and scholarships. But here’s the kicker: even though they’re both designed for the same purpose, they go about doing it in very different ways. Let’s break it down.
The SAT has been around for decades and was first introduced in 1926 by College Board, a non-profit organization. The test has two main sections: Evidence-based Reading and Writing and Math. It is a multiple-choice test and has no guessing penalties for incorrect answers. The test has moved from a pencil and paper version to a digital one starting March 2024.
The ACT, on the other hand, was started a couple decades later in 1959 and features four main sections: English, Math, Reading and Science. Unlike the SAT, where the optional essay section was discontinued in December 2023, the ACT still offers an optional writing section. Like the SAT, it is also an objective test without any negative marking for wrong answers. The ACT is only administered as a pencil and paper test in the US, with the option of taking a digital version only available to students from other countries.
You can retake for the SAT an unlimited number of times but with the ACT, you’re capped at taking the test twelve different times (though I’d say three attempts is a reasonable number of tries to get a good enough score). The digital SAT takes about two hours and fifteen minutes to complete whereas the ACT is three and a half hours long without the essay portion and four hours long with it.
The maximum score you can get on the SAT is a 1600, with a subscore of 800 in each section. It is scored on a scale of 400 to 1600. On the ACT, the highest you can score is a 36 with the lowest score being a 1. Each section has a subscore of 36 which when averaged out gives the final, overall score. Superscoring is offered on both the SAT and the ACT and allows colleges to look at your best scores in each section.
Both tests are administered seven times a year although with differing dates and cost roughly the same amount. Registration for both opens about a month before each test.
Okay, that was a lot of information, but here’s some more that will help you make the final call. Colleges look at both tests practically the same, so all things being equal, no student will get the upper hand by selecting one or the other. The choice, however, if not made carefully, does affect your performance.
The ACT has 215 questions compared to the SAT which has only 98 questions, making it more fast-paced and giving it a bit of a reputation as the ‘speed test’. But while you’ll have more time per question on the SAT, the questions are trickier and harder and this impacts pacing.
The ACT has a dedicated Science section where you need to answer forty questions in about thirty-five minutes. Though, I personally like to think of this section as just another critical reading test because you don’t actually need to memorize any facts. If you only know how to apply some basic aspects of science, you’ll fare just fine. On the other hand, while the SAT doesn’t have a specific Science section, it kind of blends science into both sections.
As for the English section, though the writing portion on both tests is pretty much the same, we can’t say the same for the reading chunk of the test. The paragraphs are a lot less dense on the SAT with each of the 54 passages being no longer than 150 words. Meanwhile, on the ACT, you’ll be reading four paragraphs that each look like walls of text and are roughly 800 words long. If you handle bursts of information better than a good deal of content on the same topic, I’d say the SAT is a lot less reading heavy than the ACT.
While the Math sections on the SAT and ACT aren’t worlds apart, there are some key differences to note, especially if math isn’t your strongest suit. First, some higher level concepts are tested on the ACT (they especially love pre-algebra) which are excluded from the SAT. Second, the ACT lets you use a calculator for the entire duration of the test but the SAT only allows its use for the latter half of the test. Are you a whiz at geometry and interpreting graphs? The ACT might be your match. Prefer a test with a bit more algebra? The SAT could be calling your name.
Now, if you’ve not taken a single practice or actual test for either, I’d start by setting some time aside on a weekend and doing just that. There are plenty of free official practice tests available online. As long as you have enough time, just do some basic preparation, take both of the two tests and see where you are. This is a low-stakes way to familiarize yourself with both formats.
If you are a testing savant and you kill both tests, you’ll have the option to take either since it won’t affect much. If you absolutely hate everything about one of the two, then go with the one that doesn’t make you wince every time you think about it. You could also be in the boat where you’re thinking of switching tests. If that’s the case, let’s see what you need to be looking at.
You should consider switching to the ACT if:
You like the certainty of past papers and practice tests. You can find close to seventy official practice tests for the ACT that have been published in recent years. For the SAT, you can find only about twenty-three QAS tests that follow the updated format. Having an idea of the kind of concepts you’re questioned on can help you feel more confident.
You’re comfortable with tables and graphs. This is for if you breeze through answering more literal and to-the-point questions and are good at spotting incorrect answers.
You prefer taking the test using pencil and paper. SAT has gone completely digital in all countries but if you’re a domestic applicant, you still have the option to take the ACT in the traditional way.
You don’t want to deal with adaptive testing. The ACT is still a linear test and doesn’t adjust questions to match the test taker's abilities.
You dislike complex reading questions. If you don’t lean towards critical thinking-style questions for the reading section, the ACT might just be for you. The questions are more about finding answers quickly rather than deep analysis.
You should consider switching to the SAT if:
You struggle with complex math problems. The ACT Math section tests concepts like trigonometry, equations of ellipses, diagonal asymptote analysis and permutations and combinations. So, if you prefer studying for fewer topics, SAT may be the better choice.
You dislike longer reading and writing paragraphs. Again, passages on the SAT are a lot shorter and quicker to read through than the ones on the ACT.
You have issues with time management. The ACT Math section gives you about a minute to solve each question whereas the SAT Math section gives you a minute and a half. Similarly, for the ACT English section, you get about 45 seconds on average for each question but 72 seconds for each question on the SAT English section.
You have trouble focusing for long periods of time. The ACT is much more a test of resilience than the SAT.
This topic has been an age-old debate in the admissions world. You can’t know which test is the easier one because there isn’t a one size fits all answer to that question. You need to think about how you felt during the tests. Did you feel stressed and rushed or were you coasting through the questions? Did you catch yourself second-guessing your answers or did it all feel very intuitive? Asking yourself these questions after each test should give you a clear winner as to the test that plays to your strengths. Your gut feeling is a powerful indicator here—trust it.
You should be very proud of yourself for taking charge of your admissions process by joining us today. I am very thankful by the response we’ve gotten to this series and am excited about all that is yet to come. Thank you for reading through this article, and if you’ve made it to the end, stay tuned for next week’s piece which will be a guide to college interviews. Until next time, keep dreaming big!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hey there, college-bound crew! I’m Kaashvi, an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College from India. I’m the brains (and heart) behind the College Countdown series here at The Ivy Institute and I am stoked to be your guide through this process.
So, a little bit about me: I was a STEM kid through and through in high school and all my classes were the highest level ones offered at my school and graduated at the top of my class for three consecutive years. Outside of class, I was involved in activities that let me nurture my love for inventiveness, responsibility and storytelling. From designing a vehicle to aid oil spill cleanup to working as an elected representative for the youth advisory council to volunteering at the local deaf school—I devoted a lot of my time to projects that were true to my values.
When I’m not typing away at my keyboard, dishing out college advice to people in my inbox and on this blog, you can catch me exploring new hiking trails, whipping up some questionable (but oddly delicious) desserts at my bakery or getting lost in a gripping mystery novel.
As an international student, the application process wasn’t just about finding a spot at a prestigious university but also about finding a place that felt like a second home. Now that I’ve made it out alive to the other end (with a boatload of stories to tell), I'm here to spill all the tea on how you can do the same. With some guidance and a whole lot of oversharing, together we’ll crush this admissions game like absolute pros.
Catch you on the flip side,
Kaashvi
