<p>If you miss 3/4 on CR you don’t have an 800 except the “hard” sections.</p>
<p>OK. But it still doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>SAT= 170 questions
ACT= 215 questions</p>
<p>Let us assume that you can miss 5 in each test to achieve a perfect score (2400/36).
Therefore, we can see that we can miss:
SAT= 2.9% of the questions
ACT= 2.3% of the questions</p>
<p>Therefore, however marginal, it is easier to achieve a perfect score on the SAT. Especially in the lieu of an essay. If you get a perfect score on the essay (12), it increases the number of writing questions you can miss from 1 to approximately 4 or 5.</p>
<p>Neither test is significantly more “difficult” than the other, and some actually score quite a bit higher on their SAT. My ACT (34) was extremely close, comparatively, to my SAT (single sitting best is 2270, super-scored total is 2310). Both tests assess wide samples from the same population, and many – if not most – college-bound students take each test at least once. The only difference in content between the two is that the ACT has a science section, which is nothing more than further assessment of reasoning skills within a different context. I can, however, understand a difference in performance between the two tests resulting from their difference in structure; I found the SAT to be much more of a hassle than the ACT, in that the former cycles between sections of the same content, while the latter tests each subject in its entirety in a predetermined order. </p>
<p>However, your performance on each test is always compared to the national distribution of raw scores. If the ACT really were an easier test, then everyone would achieve higher raw scores, and the adjusted scores would still reflect your performance relative to the population.</p>
<p>^ This. 10char</p>
<p>I think commodore gave the most accurate answer. Basically, one is not easier than the other. People are more comfortable with different styles/formats. And the raw scores reflect percentages, so anyone who happens to see more people with higher ACT scores than SAT scores is just chance. There are people who do better on one than the other.</p>
<p>Fixing what I stated before, both tests can get questions wrong for their highest possible score. There is no use in comparing whether one test is easier than the other with this because the SAT and ACT are not just about the perfect scores. The perfect scores are just hundreds of people. On the other hand, there are over a million other test-takers to think about and the number of perfect scores on the respective test is not a good indicator of “easiness”. It is based on percentages.</p>
<p>To any I have angered/annoyed, I’m sorry. But I think if someone reads through this thread, they will hopefully realize the answer to our problems.</p>
<p>Neither SAT nor ACT require intelligence. You could have a terrible student score a 2400 with the right amount of prep. Even the so-called prodigies who score so highly on their first try either A) practiced beforehand or B) unknowingly practiced through discipline in their math and english courses before and during high school.</p>
<p>Especially if you have those students that have tried ridiculously hard through high school and scored extremely well grade-wise in school that tried to take the SAT/ACT and completely bombed either one for various reasons.</p>
<p><a href=“from%20post%20#25”>quote=denizen</a> " … my anecdotal data doesn’t match up with CB. Maybe CB needs to update their SAT/ACT adjustment scale."
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</p>
<p>You seem to believe that your anecdotal data is more accurate than College Board’s scientific data.</p>
<p>In my opinion, this sums up how utterly ridiculous your argument is.</p>
<p>^ yes…</p>
<p>You have provided meaningless anecdotes. Why don’t you take both tests? They are styled very differently and neither are a walk in the park for the average student. People who score poorly on their SAT don’t just go into their ACT and score big numbers. Don’t you think someone disappointed with their SAT score would try harder on their ACT? Prep harder and more extensively? </p>
<p>■■■■■ is ■■■■■.</p>
<p>Although I disagree with the belief that the ACT is an easier test than the SAT, I think that the proponents of this belief should take into account the fact that while very few colleges “superscore” the ACT, nearly all major colleges do so for the SAT. Even if you have not been convinced by previous responses attesting to the equality between each test’s rigor, you can’t deny the fact that this is an almost ubiquitous disadvantage for ACT testers. In my opinion, it surely clears up any advantage that may exist, difficulty-wise or other.</p>
<p>The alleged reason for not superscoring the ACT is here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/american-university/938212-act-superscore.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/american-university/938212-act-superscore.html</a></p>
<p>As a parent , not a student taking these tests, I can only add my research, not experience. My understanding is that students can prep far more successfully for SAT because there are “tricks” one can learn to recognize. In contrast, the ACT is more straight-forward and content-driven – a student knows the material and can answer quickly, or not. Each test plays to different kinds of strengths.</p>
<p>Also as a parent, threads like this appear to be a waste of time. In the 1970s I took the PSAT, chose between ACT/SAT, took the SAT one time, and lived with the score. That was the norm in my high school. Since then we’ve seen the SAT “recentered” to add up to 100 points on all scores. Superscoring and selective reporting appeared. It is normal now to take both tests more than once. This is all done to boost (inflate) scores.</p>
<p>In today’s testing environment, there is no purpose and no justification for criticizing the path someone else took to boost their score. Just worry about your own.</p>
<p>Why are there even parents on this website? Lame.</p>
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<p>LMAO. Good thread by the way. Oh wait it’s my thread.</p>
<p>I hope I’m not the only one who read the thread title and knew it was ■■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>It’s not ■■■■■■■■. It’s a sound question to ask. Has my mind been changed? Not quite, but at least I respect everybody’s opinion. </p>
<p>You say it’s a dead topic, that statistics show SAT and ACT are considered equal. I say that’s fine. However, we’ll never know *exactly *what the admission officers are thinking, and that makes for a compelling discussion. </p>
<p>Additionally, anecdotes are always fun, becuase there are always certain elements of truth within them.</p>
<p>Saying this is ■■■■■■■■ is just a way to deflect an intellectual conversation much like anti-conspiracists.</p>
<p>The SAT was not re-centered (starting March 1995 btw) to inflate or raise scores. It was done to move the average score closer to the middle of the score range and to change the reference group from 1942 to 1990 to better reflect current test takers. In principle, the new scale should have been something other than 200-800 to reflect the fact that a 500 (new) was not the same as a 500 (old).</p>
<p>The old norm of taking the SAT only once reflected the idea that you couldn’t really prepare for the SAT, so taking it again, even after significant prep work, would not make much difference. (Way before the 1970s, Stanley Kaplan did pretty well for himself by rejecting the validity of this idea.)</p>
<p>Forgive another parent for chiming in… one possible explanation for lower midwest scores, at least in Michigan, is that every high school junior is REQUIRED to take the ACT as part of state testing. Therefore, students who are not college-bound are likely bringing down the average for our state.</p>
<p>BTW, my son is one of the hundreds, no wait thousands! who scored a 36 (got a 35 in the science section, 36 in the other 3). He achieved the 36 on his third try (before being required to take in as a junior). He took the SAT only once because he was a NM semi-finalist and scored a 2140, enough to make NMF.</p>