ACT SAT What's the difference?

Question

Someone told me that if I want to go to college out-of-state then I need the SAT and for in-state I need the ACT.

Well what if I do better on the ACT then the SAT? Will an out-of-state school not accept my scores since it's not SAT? Does it really matter which scores I send?

Answer 1

column 1--SAT (with writing test addition)

column 2--ACT composite score

column 3--Approximate cumulative percentage of the ACT (not the SAT)

2400 36 100%

2340 35 100%

2260 34 100%

2190 33 99%

2130 32 99%

2040 31 98%

1980 30 96%

1920 29 94%

1860 28 92%

1820 27 89%

1760 26 85%

1700 25 80%

1650 24 75%

1590 23 69%

1530 22 62%

1500 21 55%

1410 20 47%

1350 19 39%

1290 18 32%

1210 17 25%

1140 16 19%

1060 15 13%

1000 14 9%

900 13 5%

780 12 2%

750 11 1%

Answer 2

This explains exactly what the differences are:

http://www.universitylanguage.com/guides...

Many colleges will accept either, but in general I believe students from the midwest and south usually take the ACT. Just ask the colleges you're thinking about which one they prefer. I took the ACT twice and the SAT once.

Answer 3

Generally, schools closer to the coasts look more at the SAT, and in the midwest the ACT is more important. If you're applying to an Ivy League school, or going for a degree like pre-med or something, you'll probably want to take both anyway. It can never hurt!

Answer 4

For the most part schools accept both SAT and ACT scores now.  SAT is generally more popular especially in the eastern US.  ACT tends to be more popular in the western half.  It's actually not bad to take both.  The SAT focuses on math and english with a writting section.  The ACT includes a Science portion.  It's very easy to ace the science portion too.  Send a school both scores.  The school will have a conversion tool to convert ACT to SAT score and visa versa.  If you are a technical person your ACT will be higher.  If you have better verbal skills, your SAT will be higher.