In Your Opinion, which is more difficult: SAT or ACT?

<p>I'm going to take the ACT in june [yay for late registration!] and was wondering on whether I should hope for a high score or a lower score than my SAT score. I'm pretty sure I'll do better in the ACT because I am terrible at knowing HOW to take a test, but I know the material.</p>

<p>I just want your guys's opinions and please tell me why you think so.</p>

<p>THANK YOU!</p>

<p>The material is fairly similar...but the ACT has the science section which a lot of people hate. you also have to work faster on the act because of the less time they give...so i sat SAT is slightly easier for me, but for fast thinkers ACT might be better.</p>

<p>it all evens out in the end. but yea, sci is pretty hard on the act</p>

<p>SAT was much harder for me.
I'm more a math/science person.
2040 on ACT
1890 on SAT
=/</p>

<p>My son thought the vocabulary was hard on the SAT. He's more of a math/science type, too, so ACT was better. ACT lets you send the score you want, which he liked.</p>

<p>I've heard the material on the ACT is definitely not as hard as that of the SAT. However, time is a huge problem for most when taking the ACT.</p>

<p>I disagree. The math on the ACT is MUCH MUCH harder than the SAT.
I only got 4 wrong on the SAT while i got 6ish wrong on the ACT.</p>

<p>The SAT is much harder for me. I find the ACT math very easy, and kind of enjoy the science section.</p>

<p>The format of the SAT is also much harder for me to deal with.</p>

<p>SAT. It's not as straightforward as the ACT. Also, I don't have a very high vocabulary, so I don't do well on CR.</p>

<p>i haven't taken the ACT yet...but one of my friends made a 33...and made a 1850 on the SAT...pretty off there but he said the ACT was extremely easy</p>

<p>My D got a 1440/1600 on the SAT. She got a 35 composite on the ACT. Whereas she got a 740 on the M from SAT, she got a 36 on the math ACT. She loved that there wasn't the vocab component to the ACT (36 vs 700). She also did very well on the ACT science. So for her ... not that it's representative at all, the ACT was easier.</p>

<p>zebes</p>

<p>wow that's awesome!</p>

<p>i guess for most people it evens out, but for those lucky few the ACT is easier.</p>

<p>I think the SAT is more difficult. My scores are about the same though.</p>

<p>I think a lot of people get hung up w/ time management on the ACT, especially on the Science part. But remember, you can take the ACT as many times as you want and only send the best score. (Don't have them send the scores to your HS because many schools put reported scores on the transcript.) With SAT it's all there no matter what.</p>

<p>I tried the ACT and hated it, and left right in the middle of the test. It may be the shorter test, but their insanely long sections make it feel much longer.</p>

<p>hmm idk i had slight trouble with SAT (2150) so i took an ACT practice and holy crapola it's WAY too much reading. the science section isn't exactly "science" it's more like a reading section that has science topics in it. the math i thot was a little hard cuz i can't ****ing remember cosine identities from like 9th grade. anyways, sticking with SAT it would take more time for me to study for ACT and improve in that again.</p>

<p>I liked the ACT better:
1910 SAT
29 ACT</p>

<p>It really depends on your personal style. The science section sucks though.</p>

<p>i'm a VERY fast test-taker ( i've probably finished every section on the SAT with an average of 5-10 minutes to spare, except for the last one ) so that, i hope, will help me in terms of ACTs. I've also heard that people who have good GPAs generally do better on ACTs than SATs, which is more <em>thinking</em> than ACTs</p>

<p>it really IS personal style. SAT has more logic in the math problems -- if you can visualize the info, a difficult question can be easily solved in 30 seconds without using plug and check. But, those non-visualizers might do better on the ACT since they could stare at a SAT math problem for a minute and still not 'see' the easy way to solve it.</p>

<p>The SAT math only covers thru AlgII, whereas ACT covers some trig, i.e., precalc. The key to the ACT is pacing. Given an hour, most kids would earn a 36 on the science section, since all the answers are provided for you in the tables and charts. But, you have less than a minute to answer each question, so gotta work quickly. The other thing about science is that it's the last test when fatigue starts to set in -- do some jumping jacks at the break to keep the blood flowing.</p>

<p>OP: try some practice tests at home, but break them up. For example, try to complete one science section of 8 questions in 6-7 minutes, and then stop, and go look at answers.</p>

<p>My S has always been much stronger in math than English. He had about a 2050 in the SAT last Jan, but got a 35 in the ACT, missing one in the English section. He had a real hard time with the SAT vocab, getting around 620 in the reading section, and felt the math in the SAT was not hard enough for him to get an advantage.
He never mentioned anything about the time pressure.</p>