<p>So I signed up for the upcoming June 2nd SAT and June 9th ACT yesterday at the last minute.
I've got a team of teachers willing to help me study and both a kaplan writing workbook as well as the official college board SAT study guide book. I also have printed out a number of vocabulary lists that I should know. I know this is last minute, but does anybody think its too short of time to study for both tests???? I could really use some study tips and information that might be helpful. Is this an okay time to combine studying for both of these college tests? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t study for both of them simultaneously. You can either</p>
<p>(1) Keep the dates as is, but just study for one of them, and do the other one “cold” (you can prepare for the second time you take it).</p>
<p>(2) Change one of the dates so that you can prepare for one test at a time.</p>
<p>Some of my teachers told me that studying for one test will help me study for the other. I’d really like to take these tests while my 3rd year information is fresh in mind. If I should do this, any tips?</p>
<p>I agree and disagree. I can only speak for the math and science. First the math:</p>
<p>Preparing for one test will naturally improve your mathematical ability, and therefore will have a positive affect on your results for the other test. However, mathematical ability isn’t the main concern for the SAT. For the SAT you must learn SAT specific strategies, some of which apply to the ACT, many of which don’t. Mathematical knowledge is only secondary for the SAT. Generally I recommend 3 to 4 months of SAT preparation spending 10 to 20 minutes per day on math. The ACT is a more straightforward math test but has more advanced topics than are on the SAT. You need to focus a little less on strategy and more on practicing mathematics for the ACT. I recommend about 2 months of math prep for the ACT.</p>
<p>Now the ACT has a science reading section which requires very good time management skills. There is no comparable section on the SAT.</p>
<p>If you’re preparing for these tests correctly, then studying for both of these tests simultaneously will not optimize either score. </p>
<p>As far as 3rd year information being fresh in your mind, that is pretty much irrelevant for the math on the SAT. A large percentage of the math is much more basic than what most students learn in their 3rd year. You may find a bit more on the ACT that you have learned this year, especially if you just learned trigonometry and logarithms.</p>