<p>Thank you, but I cant imagine why this happens.
In my experience so far, I feel that the individual questions on the ACT are not all that hard at all, but on the contrary, I feel there are many questions on the SAT that causes me to think, then answer the question wrong. Maybe its just me. </p>
<p>Maybe the reason the ACT 34-36 maybe harder to achieve than a 1500-1600 could maybe be the curve.</p>
<p>^I think it’s a combination of three things. First, you are correct that the ACT curve is very harsh. Second, there is significantly more time pressure on the ACT than on the SAT which causes students to rush and to make mistakes. And third, the science reasoning section on the ACT (which is really just disguised critical reading) trips up a lot of students. But as I said, the numbers are what they are, and they convincingly demonstrate that the ACT is NOT an easier test than the SAT.</p>
<p>The only problem with the ACT is the inconsistencies of scores over the years.</p>
<p>The ACT seems to lose equivalently to 10 sat points each year. I’m sure it’ll stable out soon… I hope… I hate seeing the value of my score mean less.</p>
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<p>Completely false. You cannot simply add the number of people who score between 750-800 on CR to the number of people who score between 750-800 on math. The great majority of people who score in that range on one section do not do so on the other.</p>
<p>gbesq: Your numbers are way off! You need to look at their composite scores, not individual section scores.</p>
<p>In 2008, 1518858 seniors took the SAT1, 7798 scored 2270 or higher on CR AND math and</p>
<p>writing, work out to be 0.00597%. 13987 scored 1510 or higher for the CR and math </p>
<p>sections, roughly 0.009%. 34ACT=1510 or 2270 for 3 sections.</p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_2008_composite_cr_m.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_2008_composite_cr_m_w.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
[ACT-SAT</a> Concordance](<a href=“http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/index.html]ACT-SAT”>http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/index.html)</p>
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<p>Bingo! The ACT is speed reading. Even the so-called science section is graph/chart reading on steroids. AP Stats would be more useful as prep for the Science section than AP science. If, instead of 30 minutes, the science section was an hour, most kids would easily score a high 30 on that section alone.</p>
<p>The SAT math is more logic, while the ACT math problems are more straight forward. But again, speed thinking is required, unlike SAT math. The reason few score a composite 35-36 is bcos few individuals can think and process that FAST over 3.5 hours.</p>
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The SAT math is definitely not logic, unless I got stupider since 8th grade.</p>
<p>I got, what a 730 on the math in 8th and now I have never yet since passed 700 to this date (i’m in 10th atm). It’s all about who can make the fewest stupid mistakes because of how poorly worded the problems are. I looked over all the questions I got wrong on the last test and this is what the SAT tells me:</p>
<p>-1 -> Apparently I don’t know the difference between positive and negative numbers
-2->I can’t calculate the median of a set of data
-3->I can not correctly find the area of a sphere
-4->Cannot correctly solve a simple algebra problem
-5->Cannot find the slope of a line when given 2 points.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting perspective for the SAT to tell me what I don’t know, but I already know it. Compare this to my 5 ap calc, 35 act math, 760 sub2 test… I really can’t see how i’m supposed to have like a 600 something.</p>
<p>If that is somehow logic, call me because I don’t see it. Just badly written english word problems that fail to show any mathmatical capabilities.</p>
<p>I don’t know that “poor wording” is really… erm, the correct wording. I mean, it’s not like the test writers are just stupid and don’t know how to write the questions clearly. When they’re confusing, which is most of the time, it’s because the writers deliberately designed them to be so.</p>
<p>I agree that SAT math has a lot to do with not making mistakes, but I don’t think it’s because problems are poorly worded. Can you show me an example of a question whose meaning is ambiguous? More importantly, can you show me more than one or two? The questions are designed to force you to be careful, but not to be unclear to those who read them thoroughly.</p>
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<p>The fact that you’re missing these types of things just means that during your years of higher math (which is what your AP/SATII scores are measuring) you’ve gotten rusty with the basic stuff, which is what the SAT is trying to test. It doesn’t mean you lack reasoning skills; it just means you need to review the basic principles so that you can apply them. You were probably much more familiar with those principles in 8th grade, hence the higher score.</p>
<p>“The questions are designed to force you to be careful” - that’s the problem. Because the only way to force someone to read the question thoroughly is to deliberately insert tricks. Provide the DIAMETER of the sphere instead of the radius. Ask for the area OUTSIDE a region instead of inside.</p>
<p>Now, first off, realistic questions do not actually look like this. If, in a basic calculus class, you are given f(x) = x^2 and see the word “differentiate”, you are going to be expected to differentiate x^2. If anyone writing the textbook suggested that maybe the instructions should say “differentiate the sum of f(x) and 9x”, they would be laughed out of the room. Because to someone working at any remotely advanced level, writing problem statements in a tricky way just to make sure students are paying attention is stupid.</p>
<p>Of course, there will still be the occasional question that is worded confusingly. It happens. But in a normal situation, you have TIME to figure out the question. On the SAT, you have less than a minute per question. Now, if you take SAT prep classes, you learn precisely how questions will be worded, so you go into the test already knowing what tricks to watch out for. The people who just read the questions thorougly, without having this foreknowledge, simply do not have enough time.</p>
<p>112358 and jomudd88,</p>
<p>Thanks for your posts and for the clarification. I was indeed incorrect. But I think that my essential point – that the ACT is not demonstrably easier to score well on than the SAT – is still true. Using the revised numbers supplied by jomudd88, it appears that the percentage of students taking the SAT in 2008 who scored in the 1500-1600 range on BOTH CR and M is .92% (13,987 of 1,518,858), which is still higher than the .68% of all students who took the ACT who received a composite score in the 34-36 range. No?</p>
<p>Well, SAT math questions aren’t poorly worded. They put half a million in to each version of the test. They’re precisely worded in a way that adds a bit of complexity to what would be mindless plug-n’-chug problems.</p>
<p>Many problems included underlined sections (e.g. what is the price in dollars) that would otherwise throw many students off. The test writers are actually rather generous in that respect.</p>
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<p>Sorry, “logic” was a poor choice of words. The correct term is “reasoning.” In SAT math, for example, if you know the formula for the average rate traveled problem, you can easily solve (If a train leaves Chicago traveling east…), but if you don’t know it, the vast majority of kids will never be able to solve the problem. Or, if you are presented with three equations and three-four unknowns, most kids will start to solve for one, and plug and solve and plug and solve, wasting valuable time. But, those kids who have faster “reasoning” ability (or visual acuity), will immediately see that if we re-arrange some and subtract equation one from two, a couple of unknowns disappear – volia, solution in 20 seconds and not two minutes.</p>
<p>ACT math IS more straight forward (no train-leaving-Chicago problems…), but you just have to work faster. ACT math also includes higher level math (4 trig problems, 2 of which are always right angle problems, so easily solvable by anyone in precalc).</p>
<p>Quote:
Many problems included underlined sections (e.g. what is the price in dollars) that would otherwise throw many students off. The test writers are actually rather generous in that respect. </p>
<p>Ensuring that the student understands the question is generous now?</p>
<p>Making the subtleties of the questions stand out is generous, yes.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether or not it’s fair, I don’t think having little tricks embedded in the questions is as much of an issue as it’s been made out to be. With a little practice and attention to detail, it’s not that hard to spot them.</p>
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<p>The test writers don’t have to “ensure” anything. Short of deliberately making the question ambiguous or difficult to understand, ETS should leave comprehending the question to the student.</p>
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<p>At the same time, a section like math should test how well you know math. It shouldn’t test how well you can decipher ETS’ English.</p>
<p>^I agree and I do not find the ACT’s math easier despite my score difference. I always find questions I can’t do on the ACT and like 1 question I can’t do on the SAT.</p>
<p>It’s really how the SAT words the questions just to make you look at them several times. I’m not interested though – I want to breeze through the questions at my own pace. It’s frustrating having to read the questions several times just to make sure it says radius or diameter or circumference. Just little words-- that’s the SAT. The ACT never does this and I think it correctly tests mathmatical knowledge.</p>
<p>What I find interesting to: I like both the Math sub 1 and 2 tests perfectly fine. They don’t try the same tricks as the SAT1 math.</p>
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Straightforward, like in that if you know how to solve the question you can solve it. And it’s not that easy-- there’s always atleast 1 question I cannot solve even with more time.</p>
<p>Have you tried underlining key words as you go? It helped me learn to avoid missteps.</p>