<p>Slipstream...do you realize how many more students take the SAT than the ACT? It's mostly people in the Midwest that actually take the ACT. So 36 Math ACT is not necessarily > 800 math SAT.</p>
<p>Actually more students take the act 2.1 mil to 1.9 mil</p>
<p>That's weird...maybe I had that impression because I am in the NorthEast and essentially nobody I know is taking the ACT...</p>
<p>what? I'm in the northeast and basically everyone I know took both the sat and the act.</p>
<p>ACT Math questions are more straightforward, but you have much less time in answering them. Also, the Math curve is insane. Miss one and you aren't getting a 36 Math; sometimes the jump for missing one on ACT is to a 34. On some SATs, you might be able to miss a question and still get 800...occasionally... </p>
<p>Back on Topic, 36 ACT Math is better IMO than 800 SAT I Math. I also feel that it is harder to get a composite 36 (miss two questions at most) rather than a 2400.</p>
<p>so would a my 36 outweigh my 710 in admissions....only 3 questions missed incredibly lowers sat scores</p>
<p>wow, slipstream, i expected that to be the opposite! i thought reading and science would be hardest to get 36 (although I got a 35 on reading and 36 on science, most people I know did SIGNIFICANTLY worse on their science and slightly worse on their reading), with english and math the easiest.</p>
<p>And realize that the quality of students that take each test alters the reliability of comparing the two data sets.</p>
<p>The number of students taking the ACT is actually slightly less than the SAT. Note the number at the top of the page in the earlier link, it is just under 1.2M. On the mailings sent home from the SAT they had roughly 1.3M test takers last year. </p>
<p>I do not how they count "students" into that number though. For example, does student A who takes the SAT 3 times count as 3 students or just 1? Going forward I would expect that more students will take both tests because almost all colleges will take either for admissions.</p>
<p>It is actually a bit hard to compare the scores. Here's why, most schools aloow you to take the best SAT I score from each sitting, i.e. a 600CR, 700W, 800M and a 700CR, 600W, 750M tanslates to a 700CR, 700W, 800M. You can't do the same with the ACT and the ACT composite.</p>
<p>Note that there were only 224 perfect 36 composites. That is less than the number of 1600s. Though I do not know if that is true of students who may have their 1600 in a single sitting.</p>
<p>I remember seeing that in terms of applications, it was like 75/25 SAT/ACT.</p>
<p>It is true that just under 1.2 million (1,171,460) students took the ACT in the class of 04 but just over 1.4 million (1,419,007) took the SAT. Regardless of this disparity, simply taking the percentage of students scoring the top score in the math section shows which top score is more exclusive, which is the claim I made. </p>
<p>ACT
1863/1,171,460 = .00159</p>
<p>SAT
9917/1,419,007 = .00699</p>
<p>Difference in level of difficulty of the sections depends, of course, on each test taker's ability, rendering argument about this issue irrelevant.</p>
<p>*Data for the SAT comes from the tables at this</a> website.</p>
<p>Stix is right. The SAT is a "reasoning" test. If you want to test subjects take the SAT 2s</p>
<p>Midwest have traditionally had lower scores(Look at National Merit cutoff numbers). ACT takers are predominantly in the Midwest. So even though less proportion of kids get 36 than 800, you cannot compare the two.</p>
<p>so would a my 36 outweigh my 710 in admissions....only 3 questions missed incredibly lowers sat scores</p>
<p>same with me 36 act math, 730 SAT math!!!</p>
<p>slipstream,</p>
<p>Thanks for digging up the information. That is what I thought about which is more rare.</p>
<p>BTW, both the SAT and ACT have done correlation studies on thier tests. The results are the correlation tables between the 2 tests. a 36 is equal to a 1600, a 35 is equal to a 1560-1590, a 34 is equal to a 1510-1550, etc. using the old SAT score ranges. You can get more detailed information on this at:</p>
<p>It looks like they will do the associated correlation to the new scores in early 2007. See the following on the ACT web-site:</p>