<p>I know most of you must think this is stupid but I am an international student and dont know whats the difference between the two besides the score range. Who takes SAT and who takes ACT?</p>
<p>Which is preferred and why are they seperate?</p>
<p>I took Subject SAT and got 2380 is that good score by ACT standards??</p>
<p>What do you mean by you took “Subject SAT and got 2380.” If that is your SAT score you don’t need to take ACT or another SAT. If that means you have taken three SAT subject tests and that is your combined score then you don’t need to take any more subject tests.</p>
<p>Every college takes either SAT or ACT with the exception that some colleges don’t require any tests. The tests are administered and controlled by two separate companies, the College Board for the SAT and ACT Inc. for the ACT. Historically, the vast majority of students in the eastern and far western states have taken the SAT mainly because that is where the SAT got a stronghold with high schools emphasizing it. Vast majority of students in the states in the middle of the USA have taken the ACT because the ACT got a stronghold in those states. The result is that you will see a higher percentage of applicants with SAT to the eastern and western colleges and with the ACT to ones in the middle of the country. In the last few years that has been shifting somewhat because more and more in the east and west are also taking the ACT with the result that more now take the ACT than the SAT. But that is irrelevant to acceptance of the tests and colleges generally accept either without preference. If you score high on one, you don’t need the other.</p>
<p>If you Google for the differences you will find a lot of information describing the two tests. The SAT has a math, reading and writing section, the ACT a math, English, reading and science section. General differences that have been noted is that the ACT seems more geared to testing you on things you learned in high school while the SAT tries to test a little more on general knowledge and logical thinking. The ACT questions are usually less tricky than SAT questions but the ACT has more time pressure per section than the SAT.</p>
<p>Wow thnx really informative! I took the SAT subject and got 800 in phy 800 chem and 780 math. In SSAT I got a total of 2210</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are good enough unless you are aim for HYPSM–but SAT scores are far from being the determining factor for admission at these schools (and many other schools).</p>