<p>I have lurked on CC for about a year, but I have never really felt pressed to post anything. However, I am now facing an issue regarding standardized tesing and I really do not know what to do.</p>
<p>I am a rising senior. As a junior I took the PSAT and got a 209. After a few months of prepping (which was clearly not effective), I then took the SAT and got a 1980. A few months later, I decided to take the ACT with very little preparation (about 3-4 hours total) and got a 32. A few colleges that I want to apply to require SAT IIs, which I did decently on (780 and 730, US History and Chem). </p>
<p>My question is this: should I focus on improving my SAT score or my ACT score? Some people have told me that since my PSAT score was much better than my SAT score that I have the potential to do better on the SAT and I should study/take a class for that because colleges that I submit my SAT IIs to will see my SAT score anyway. Other people say that since I did better comparatively on the ACT with much less prep, I should try to improve that score instead. Also, my worst section by far on the ACT was math, which I strongly feel I could have done better on had I reviewed some of the geometry and algebra that I seemed to not recall during the test. Logistically, I can't study for both tests effectively because my main EC is extremely time consuming.</p>
<p>I'm sorry for the really long post, but I was just wondering the thoughts of all of you wise CCers :).</p>
<p>I’d go with the ACT, for the reasons you’ve mentioned. Math is probably the easiest section to improve upon, whereas I’m guessing for your SAT, you would need to work on all three sections.</p>
<p>Thanks, lolcats4 and CDN<em>Dancer. CDN</em>Dancer, you are correct in that I would have to raise each section of my SAT ~80 pts in order to have a score that I am happy with. I would have no qualms about focusing solely on the ACT were it not for the fact that the colleges that I submitted my SAT IIs to will also see my SAT score. I know that admissions officers are only supposed to take one’s highest scores into account, but I’m worried that admissions officers will see my low SAT scores and subconciously think of me as less qualified than they would have had they not seen my SATs. </p>
<p>Does anyone else have opinions or experience dealing with this situation?</p>
<p>For you, definitely ACT. You answered the question yourself when you stated that you got a 32 (A very good score might I add) with only a few hours of preperation. Now imagine if you took the ACT with much more preperation, practice, and know how. </p>
<p>Yeah, I have always thought the ACT was the way to go until I talked to someone who was worried about what colleges would think when they saw my SAT II scores, and therefore my SAT scores (which I am actualy still a little worried about).</p>