if i got a 35 on the ACT ...should i retake the SAT?

Applying to College
21

<p>sure it will, it's the same as a 2330-2390!</p>

<p>and it's most definitely a regional basis. i go to a competitive public school in illinois and only 25% of students take the SAT. everyone takes the ACT. we send a couple to ivy's every year and plenty to top 25 schools.</p>

<p>op, if i were you i would try and retake it (if that was your first try) so there's not such a large difference between the ACT and the SAT but if you don't have time or don't want to then definitely don't worry about it. your ACT is amazing.</p>

22

<p>tokenadult : I'll try to find the article.</p>

23

<p>thanks for all your responses.
i'm probably going to end up taking the SAT again because i do live in new jersey where the SAT is more prominent.
but ParentofIvyHope i would like to see that article.</p>

24

<p>"Wait, wait...so you're saying if I live in Pennsylvania (SAT-preffered state?), then me taking the ACT and getting a 34 on it with a 2010 SAT will look bad, simply because I don't live in the Midwest?"</p>

<p>No, I'm not saying it will look bad. I'm saying that adcoms don't really care too much which test you take because some states make it hard to take one or the other.</p>

25

<p>Oh okay haha. I wanna goto Pitt and they take both tests. For instance, for gtting into Honors College, you have to have at least a 1350 SAT or a 31 ACT. So in that way, they accept both. My mom talked to the adcom officer person and he said that if you don't do so hot on the SAT, take it again or try your hand at the ACT. They'll accept either one, whichever one's higher.</p>

26

<p>POIH, a 35 on the ACT is going to look just as good as a score above 2150, probably better.</p>

<p>A 35 is an EXTREMELY solid score. Don't bother with the SAT, schools won't hesitate to take you with your ACT score above pretty much all school's 75th percentile.</p>

27

<p>If you submit an ACT, the first thing an admission's committe will do is convert it to an SAT score and put that on the top of your folder for quick reference. They only take the top score.</p>

28

<p>a 35 on your ACT is also much more respected than a 2150. a 35 is about a 2380 in to adcoms. saying 2150=35 is like saying 2150=2380</p>

29

<p>the admission's committee converts it? do you know this for sure?</p>

30

<p>Well, for comparison, they have to convert.</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(examination)#Score_comparison_with_SAT%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(examination)#Score_comparison_with_SAT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That's the chart that the UC system uses.</p>

31

<p>Yes.
They do.
Or at least they list it as your test score.</p>

32

<p>
[quote]
the admission's committee converts it? do you know this for sure?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I know for sure that that is what Harvard does, because this question was asked at the Exploring College Options </p>

<p><a href="http://exploringcollegeoptions.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://exploringcollegeoptions.org/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>meeting in my state in May 2007. Some colleges perhaps make their own conversion charts, based on their own experience with applicants, but I recall the Harvard admission officer saying that you could look up the chart that Harvard uses on the Web, which I took to mean that it is one of the industry-standard charts compiled by someone else.</p>

33

<p>
[quote]
Also the students doesn't take ACT or SAT I on a region basis. Both tests target different things and it has been proven that ACT is more closer to high school curriculumn than SAT1 which is more abstract ( in lack of better word.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Not true - the ACT is the de facto standardized test in the mid-west.</p>

<p>(Note - the midwestern schools tend to have a higher % of high ACT scorers than the schools in the NE).</p>

34

<p>
[quote]
"You need to understand that most students who take ACT are those who don't do well on SAT."</p>

<p>That is not correct. Most students take whatever is the preferred test in the region of the country where they live.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It is largely correct for applicants in traditionally SAT-dominated regions. Where the SAT used to rule, the ACT has become popular as a way for people who are "bad at tests" to circumvent the IQ and logic-puzzle aspect of the SAT, which is the more elusive and discriminating (that is, aptitude-detecting) feature of the test. The ACT is understood to be a more routine test to prepare for, and thus an alternate route for people who are weaker at the logic games.</p>

<p>The ACT also allows the applicant to control which test results are released. An applicant can hedge against low SAT scores by taking the ACT as often as needed and submitting the highest score, if it significantly exceeds the SAT results (if it is slightly higher, it just confirms the SAT results so this may not be a good strategy). Of course, this strategy is available to all applicants, weak or strong on the SAT, but those who are weak, or think that they might be, have the greater incentive to play the ACT card. </p>

<p>One of the admissions officers on CC noted that whenever he has seen scores from both tests in one application, the ACT score is always higher. That is what would be expected from strategic ACT-taking.</p>

<p>So yes, at least in SAT-land, the ACT has features that make it attractive to those who are weak on the SAT, and it is rapidly gaining popularity in those regions for precisely that reason. This, I think, is what the previous poster was talking about. There was indeed an article on this phenomenon, linked in CC.</p>

<p>As to conversion, yes, an SAT-centric school will convert the results, but the issue for the OP is whether they look at the converted ACT as a separate piece of information or subsume it in a "superscore" calculation.</p>