S21 got his 1st ACT scores today and has a 10 pt. difference between reading (34) and math (24).
He’s taking the SAT on March 14 and has done more prep for it but Math is still a struggle.
Which test is easier to improve the math score on for kids who aren’t so great at Math?
Hmmmm. I think ACT. It is more straightforward, and the only real issue is speed. Repeated drilling of actual questions should yield some decent results.
By contrast, the SAT - although the level of math is no more difficult and might even be a touch easier than the ACT - likes to test the concepts in tricky ways, sometime using convoluted language that requires multiple steps. There are many ways to ask the same sort of question once you start using tricky language, so repeated drilling will be more hit and miss in my opinion.
Curious to hear what others’ thoughts are on this.
I would agree on the ACT math, it’s more concrete, whereas the SAT tends to be more abstract. Good luck!
I would have agreed with the above until D21 started testing. She’s not a math whiz, but not weak in math at all. She’s found after doing some tutoring for the SAT, it’s not as much the math as the reading. Working with the tutor, she’s realized she can pull out key words and phrases in the math that tip her off and don’t actually require more advanced math skills. We’ll see -she’s taking it again in March.
She initially didn’t have a preference after taking practice ACT and SAT, then after a real ACT said the SAT was much easier.
It depends on the student. The ACT has more questions/minute while the SAT questions can be a bit more tricky. I’d see how the SAT goes and then decide.