SAT or ACT? Only one is required. Which one should I take? What are the differences?

Question

I am an international student hoping to attend USC. It is not required that I take both the SAT and the ACT but it is required that I take one of them. I was wondering, what are the differences? Which one would you say was easier to prepare for etc...

I have not yet prepared for either as in my county, we do A-Levels and not SAT or ACT tests.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I think if you score high on the ACT it looks better. The SAT is usually the easier test, so go with ACT.

You can go to actstudent.org and www.collegeboard.com/student/index.html?... for info on both the tests.

Answer 2

The ACT is easier, but you should check with the university and see which they prefer.  I only took the ACT because in Michigan that's the test most of our institutions use, but we were advised to take the SAT if we were planning on going out of state.  Different universities have different preferences.  

Answer 3

I would definitely go with the ACT. I have taken both the SAT and the ACT in the past year, and have scored significantly better on the ACT (2000 on SAT, 33 on SAT, which translates to 2190 SAT). I did not study for either of these though, so I cannot tell you which test is easier to study for. I am not sending my SATs to any schools, and am only sending my ACT scores. I am taking the ACT again in October after studying; I'm hoping for a 35.

Along with the ACT or SAT you might be required to take SAT IIs or subject tests as well. No form of ACT subject tests exist, so the SAT subject tests it is.

Answer 4

The SAT tests you in reading, English, and math skills. Each section is about 25 minutes, with one being about 10 minutes, and having 20-30 questions, depending on what area it is. There are only about 20 math questions per section but 35 for English. It all adds up to 3 hours 45 minutes. You get one bathroom break and a couple stretch breaks. The SAT also requires a 25 minute essay. Each section (reading, math, writing) gets a score of 200-800 and your total is your overall score. A few years ago a new version of the SAT came out, adding the English section, making the total a 2400. But if you wanna calculate your score out of 1600, the old way, just leave out your English score.

The ACT is a bit shorter in duration but is more vigorous. There are just three sections, a 45 minute English section for 75 questions, a 60 minute section for 60 math questions, a reading section, and a science section, which tests your skills of analyzing scientific data and reading graphs, charts, etc. The ACT also includes an optional essay, but I recommend you take the essay if you want to take the ACT. The ACT requires you to work faster as compared to the SAT, but questions are generally easier. Each branch gets a score of 1-36 and your composite is sort of the average of all of them.

Oh, and women tend to do better on the ACT, since it leans more toward verbal and reading skills instead of math. But that's a generalization and may or may not apply to you.

I did better on the ACT (34) than the SAT (2180) but I plan to take the SAT again. If I were you I'd purchase a prep book for each test from a bookstore, and look through them, do a few practice problems to see which one you're more comfortable with. You could even take both tests, which would look good on your transcript. Personally I liked the SAT better because its short sections allows you to concentrate on the problems more instead of worrying about time and pacing.