<p>Simply put, is ACT easier than SAT? Do both accurately indicate where an individual is ranked amongst his peers.
From what I've read on forums, most people who can't handle the SAT takes the ACT and manages to get a score over 30, something about the 95th percentile.
To me, everyone seems to be getting over 30s on the ACT. Will taking the ACT even differ me from others.
I don't want to waste time taking the ACT if, in the end, it won't show my superiority to others.</p>
<p>“show my superiority…” that cracks me up. lol</p>
<p>One’s not really easier than the other…it’s more about the skills they emphasize. The ACT is a content-based test, the SAT tests critical thinking and problem solving.
Each test plays to different strengths, so performing well on either really just comes down to what kind of test taker you are.</p>
<p>In my opinion… the SAT is extremely more difficult than the ACT </p>
<p>I’ve been reading all of my life so the CR portion of the SAT comes very easy for me (700-800 on practice tests) </p>
<p>I’m not creative mathematically so i don’t do as well on SAT math.</p>
<p>I do about equally well on each part of the ACT. </p>
<p>I’m not going to take the SAT, i took the ACT twice (28 and 28 lol) and i’m taking the june ACT.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t consider one test harder than the other. There are ACT/SAT conversion charts… use those. Take practice tests and see where you stand on each exam. </p>
<p>Trust me, there are people who FAIL the ACT… it’s a great separator of who’s underachieving, who’s average and who’s intelligent/genius level. (if you can’t read at a 9th grade level or do simple math…)</p>
<p>… so I take it as that if you take the act, you’re competing with the lower level of the population? I do understand there are conversion charts, but I seriously do not see why the majority of ACT test-takers gets over 30 in contrast to those who take the SAT and gets depressing grades.</p>
<p>no…? ^10char</p>
<p>OP doesn’t make sense. If 30s are 90th percentile, you are doing better than 90 percent of the kids who took it. That’s a fact; that’s data. So you may look down on those who have high scores on the ACT and not on the SAT, but colleges treat them the same, even if you don’t.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard the ACT seems to cater more to future engineers, as it is more content-based and straightforward. Then again, I’ve only heard this so I’m not sure if it’s true or not.</p>
<p>IMO, part of the SAT’s difficulty lies in the CollegeBoard’s wording of questions; I feel like they purposefully sometimes word questions ambiguously in order to throw off test-takers. That might just be me though. The SAT is also heavily logic-based; some of the math questions are just plain stupid, and I feel like they just test your ability to find an oblique route to the answer. Then again, this may just be me.</p>
<p>For me, the critical reading part was the biggest difference. I’m fairly well read and I have a decent vocabulary so things like this are usually not particularly difficult. With the ACT, I knew most of the words (I got a 35). The SAT had many more words that I had no clue of their meaning. I did much worse on the critical reading on the SAT.</p>
<p>I have a 34 / 1910 and I received a 3.95 cumulative GPA first semester in college doing computer science. </p>
<p>If you think the SAT means more than the ACT, you are being naive. They’re both accepted equally by colleges.</p>