<p>The ACT organization has released its national report </p>
<p><a href="http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/National2008.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/National2008.pdf</a> </p>
<p>on class of 2008 students. In class of 2008, 428 students around the country achieved a peak composite scaled score of 36, and any score of 34 or higher was in the very top percentile level.</p>
<p>of those 428, 427 must be here on CC</p>
<p>didn't 32+ used to be the top percentile?</p>
<p>Yea...I was top percentile with 33 two years ago.</p>
<p>Don't only, like, 500 students take that test every year? -_-</p>
<p>no..... much more than 500 people take the test.</p>
<p>there were 250 people taking it at my school in June, so i'm sure there are many many many more people that take it nationally</p>
<p>i think krypton was being a little sarcastic.</p>
<p>i didn't take it but i wish i had. it seems to be generally easier to understand than the SAT. i know many kids who got 1200 out of 1600 on SAT's and get 33's on ACT. I feel like its composition is a lot better and a lot less trickier than the SAT...from what i hear of course.</p>
<p>Hmm that's interesting because only about 200 students get a 2400 each year. But then again, it's much harder to get a 2400 than a 36.</p>
<p>bsb2007-that's because rather than testing you on how well you can take some stupid test, the ACT actually tests you on what you learned in high school and how much of it you retained. My ACT score was equal to a 200-point increase on my SAT score.</p>
<p>^ same here... my ACT score is equivalent to 300 more than my SAT score.</p>
<p>The comparable figures for the SAT for class of 2008 will be released by the end of this month.</p>
<p>
[quote]
bsb2007-that's because rather than testing you on how well you can take some stupid test, the ACT actually tests you on what you learned in high school and how much of it you retained. My ACT score was equal to a 200-point increase on my SAT score.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not completely. The science section has nothing to do with what you learned in high school. The ACT reading section is kind of the same way too (more like a literary analysis exercise.) The math and English sections are better though.</p>
<p>The Math and English sections of the ACT are much superior to the SAT sections, in my opinion. The ACT tests actual skills in those sections, whereas the SAT tests the arrogance of the test takers to notice its little scams.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The ACT tests actual skills in those sections, whereas the SAT tests the arrogance of the test takers to notice its little scams.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You mean "critical reading." Which is an actual skill.</p>
<p>Different styles, different tests. The only scam is in what each test bills itself as.</p>
<p>Actually, the SAT requires students to do some really arcane things, especially in the math section. Most students who haven't taken a prep course won't consider using their answer choices to help solve a problem, which is actually necessary for some of them.</p>
<p>Oh man we got a bunch of SAT haters here...</p>
<p>I like the SATs, good old traditions.</p>
<p>There is endless discussion on this board about the relative merit of the two tests, usually in the form of asserting that one test or the other is "easier." While certainly the two tests may have different emphases or approaches in some respects, the score distribution of the tests -- a classic bell curve in both cases -- very strongly suggests that qualitatively they are equally difficult (or equally easy). </p>
<p>(By the way, the ACT report shows that 1,421,941 graduating students are included in this "cohort." In the most recent SAT annual report I found in a quick web search, for 2006, the corresponding SAT test-taking cohort was 1,465,744. In other words, essentially equal numbers of students take the SAT and ACT.)</p>
<p>Clearly, the colleges themselves have already concluded that the tests are of equivalent value, which one cannot imagine them doing if they did not also believe that the tests are of equivalent "difficulty."</p>
<p>My conclusion, therefore, is that the assertions here about the relative difficulty of the two tests are entirely a function of the anecdotal experiences of the individual posters. Almost necessarily, the student who gets a 2200 SAT and a 27 ACT will report that the SAT was "easier," while the student with a 33 ACT and a 1950 SAT will report the reverse. For them it may have seemed so; overall, it is not true.</p>
<p>On the East Coast, very few people may take the SAT, but it's the exact opposite out here in the Midwest. I tell people my SAT score when they ask me for my ACT (I haven't taken it) and they have no idea what it means.</p>