<p>I live in the Midwest, so the ACT is more commonly taken. I'm an incoming junior. I took the ACT for the first time in June and wasn't very happy with my score. </p>
<p>I thought the science section was the hardest part and overall, I struggled with the time limits. I think I have a decently strong vocabulary (or I can at least use context clues), so I think the SAT would suit me better. I'm not very good at math and I really dislike it. I've heard that there really isn't a difference between the math on the SAT and the math on the ACT, but I don't know. </p>
<p>Which test would you all suggest? I'm planning on retaking the ACT again. I'll probably take it in December. I don't know when I'll take the SAT, but hopefully soon enough so if I want to take it again, I can before it comes time for me to apply to colleges. I would like to score at least a 30 on the ACT or a 2050 on the SAT. </p>
<p>Honestly, you can’t really know until you take rpactice tests and use the SAT/ACT conversion chart to see which you did better on. There are dozens of debates about which test is better suited for different kinds of people, but I say try both and go with the one you do better on.</p>
<p>If you have issues with time I would highly suggest taking the SAT. If you’re studying the right material, you shouldn’t have issues getting through sections at the right rate.</p>
<p>The math on the SAT and ACT are VERY different. The ACT has a more straightforward math section with a few more advanced topics. The SAT focuses on basic concepts, but the questions are trickier.</p>
<p>Here are some tips for the Science section of the ACT:</p>
<p>First of all I teach my students to only use the passages to look up answers to questions - NEVER read the passages before the questions. This wastes too much time. In fact, in many questions you will not have to read the passages at all. Often you will just have to look up the answers in the appropriate charts, graphs, tables, figures, etc.</p>
<p>Second, always save the “arguments” passage for last. This is the wordiest passage which has two or more people giving two opposing viewpoints. This passage can suck your time away quickly if you’re not careful. Again, do not read the passage first here - use the passage to look up the answers, but always start with the questions.</p>
<p>Third, pacing is important. Do not get hung up on one question. If you’re spending more than a minute on a question it may be time to move on and come back to this question later.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I took the practice test on College Board’s website and I didn’t feel rushed at all. I actually had time to spare! On the ACT, I had to guess on the last 15 questions of the science section.</p>
<p>I did significantly better on the SAT practice test than I did on the real ACT. To prep for the ACT, I used Barron’s 36 and I didn’t feel that it helped at all. Is the practice SAT close to what the real one is like?</p>
<p>Also, I know there’s a penalty for guessing, but since it’s only a fourth of a point, it doesn’t seem like it affects the overall score. I guess it adds up, but I don’t see how it could greatly pull one’s score down. Could someone explain this?</p>
<p>Suppose a test has 5 possible answers for each question. If you are purely guessing, you will get 20 questions correct out of 100. That gives you 20 points. However, you lose 80*.25, or 20 points, from the 80 wrong guesses. Net result, 0 points.</p>
<p>So, although it does not actually hurt to guess, each guess will take 10 seconds to mark on the scantron, which is 10 seconds less to re-check your other work to catch silly mistakes. Thus, if you are at question #22 on a 25 question section, and you see you have one minute left, would that minute be best spent reviewing 2-3 prior answers to make sure you didn’t make a silly mistake, or in randomly guessing on the remaining 3 questions? You see there is a time cost to guessing.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, most test takers can eliminate one bad answer from the list of five. This leaves 4 answers from which to guess… a 25% probability of guessing the correct remaining answer.</p>
<p>That’s 25% * 100 = 25 points
The remaining 75 questions are wrongly guesses, giving a penalty of -.25*75 = 18.75.</p>
<p>25 -18.75 = +6.25 raw points.</p>
<p>So you see, if you can eliminate just one wrong answer from the five, pure guessing on the remaining four answers yields a positive result.</p>
<p>DunninLA: Okay, I see how it works now. Thanks so much! I think that I would still be tempted to leave an answer blank if I was short on time and I still had a few questions to go. I’ll have to take it and see how well I do.</p>