<p>Ok, so I always thought that for every college, only one of the SAT/ACT is required. If a person takes both, he or she does not have an advantage over a person that takes one, and colleges will only look at the better (after putting them to the same scale) of the two scores (or the only score if you only took the SAT or ACT).</p>
<p>However, my doctor, who I went to for a physical in order to play sports this year, asked me a few questions about high school and asked me if I had taken the SAT and ACT, and I told him that I only took the SAT. He said that I should also take the ACT because in his words, "most top private universities perfer an applicant that took both the SAT and the ACT". I did not think this was true, but he went to an Ivy League college so he does have experience in these "top private universities". I never even thought about taking the ACT because I thought that my SAT scores were good enough and that I did not want to spend a Saturday or any preparation time studying when I could be doing other great things, such as hanging out with my friends or doing something else like research.</p>
<p>So basically, I want to clarify something:
Is it an advantage to take both the SAT and the ACT? (I didn't think so, but my doctor said otherwise). When I mean "advantage", I just mean strictly in taking both, not an advantage that you get 2 chances to see which is a better score.
Are there any colleges that specifically require both an SAT and an ACT score?</p>
<p>I want to know this too. A lot of my peers are taking the ACT in hopes of a better score, and my counselors recommend it as well. However, I’ve always been under the mindset that taking another test is useless if you’ve already gotten a good SAT score.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine taking only one of the tests. Colleges don’t expect you to take both the SAT and the ACT, and there’s no advantage to them seeing you took them both. Either is equally acceptable, as they state on their websites (though some on CC insist - with little to no evidence - that selective east coast schools prefer the SAT).</p>
<p>Having said that, it may be to your advantage to take them both, as some students do better under one of the formats than the other. If you have a top-notch score on one of the tests already, though, there’s little to be gained by taking the other. So Connor2010, both you and your friends/counselors are correct, while HiPeople, your doctor is misinformed.</p>
<p>The two exams are written by different companies, and so cover slightly different material. You cannot clearly say that X score on the ACT is equal to or better than Y score on the SAT and vice versa.</p>
<p>However, colleges routinely convert the ACT score to an equivalent SAT score to determine the Academic Index. (See ACT:SAT Conversion chart at College Board>)</p>
<p>I did fine on the SAT but I took the ACT too, because I mean… what is there to lose? If you have the time and money to spare it really can’t hurt. And in the end I’m glad I took the ACT too. The reason’s hard to articulate but I’ll try to explain:</p>
<p>On the SAT I got a 730 on Writing.
On the ACT I got 36s in both English and Reading. </p>
<p>It’s kind of like… even though the tests are slightly different, I was glad I took the ACT because I did better in those sections. Scores can fluctuate, but I knew my English skills were better than what the SAT showed them as–but admission officers wouldn’t have, and I felt like the ACT patched them up a little–so that AOs could see that I was capable of doing well, even though that 730 wasn’t the best. This sounds really confusing… hopefully it makes sense.</p>
<p>You are not penalized for not taking both. The only plus to doing so would be the scores may validate each other, or the school will take the stronger of the two.</p>