<p>Everyone at our school takes the SAT, but I'd say half of them have no idea what the ACT is. </p>
<p>Are they truly weighted equally? Can anyone back up their claim?</p>
<p>They're definitely weighted equally. Lots of schools in the midwest don't have any (or barely any) students that take the sat. Also for a bunch of schools in the south...</p>
<p>I just took the ACT a week ago thinking that it would indeed be easier than the SAT.</p>
<p>Sadly, I was proven wrong. The questions on the ACT are more straightforward, but it's the amount of time you get for each section (more specifically reading&science) that kills you. Most commonly, you're going to find yourself blindly guessing on the last five questions in the last minute. </p>
<p>Generally, I think you'll do more or less the same on both those tests. However, I do believe that if I got 10 extra minutes on the whole exam, I'd probably score a lot higher in comparison to the SAT.</p>
<p>To add on to my post, some people think the ACT is easier, some think the SAT is easier, and some view them equally. It truly is 100% person to person.</p>
<p>the SAT is popular on the coasts, and ACT is more dominant in the midwest etc. When i lived in california, everyone only talked about the SAT and i dont think many people even knew about the ACT. Now, in the midwest, more people take the ACT.</p>
<p>personally i think ACT is easier than SAT, but that's just me. people seems to have more success getting a perfect score on ACT than SAT...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.act.org/news/data/07/pdf/National2007.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.act.org/news/data/07/pdf/National2007.pdf</a> </p>
<p>(table 2.1)</p>
<p>For me the SAT is far easier. The questions are slightly more complex and sometimes a little tricky, but the ACT just does'nt allot sufficient time. I always feel rushed.</p>
<p>But do top colleges (think HYPS) discriminate? I mean, I KNOW they say they don't care whether you submit the SAT/ACT, but will you be 'looked down upon' if you submit the ACT? In other words, will taking the SAT give you a 'boost' at these places?</p>
<p>A sufficiently high ACT score won't be looked down upon.</p>
<p>For me, the SAT was just as hard as the ACT. My score on the ACT worked out to my score on the SAT minus writing. It's different for every person, though. I have heard that the people who do well on the SAT do not always do well on the ACT and vice versa just because the tests are a little different in their methodology.</p>
<p>No one looks down on the ACT.</p>
<p>Sometimes taking the ACT can save you a lot of time; a few of my colleges wanted SAT II scores in addition to SAT scores, and I had never been counseled to take them. My colleges offered taking the ACT w/ Writing in lieu of SAT + SAT II scores (and I got into those colleges).</p>
<p>Here's my son's take on the difficulty. We live in the Midwest, where everyone takes the ACT. We hadn't even thought about the SAT until he got a 232 PSAT and we knew he would need it for NM. He had taken the ACT in 7th and 9th grades as part of a talented and gifted class and was much more familiar with that exam, also having done a few tests from a prep book. He went from a 27 in 7th grade to a 34 in 9th grade and a 36 as a junior. Meanwhile, he took the SAT last May as a whim cause he was free on the test date. We knew he would be pressed to take it in the fall with other activities. With never even having seen the test format before and no prep, he got a 2290. We thought that would probably verify his 232 PSAT for NM, but it is tempting to retake with some prep work. However, he now needs the SAT subject tests, the Oct. date he has a band competition, and he has to take the subject tests in Nov. He could potentially retake the SAT I in December, but we are leaning against that with the hopes that the 36 ACT is good enough and the subject tests will be fine. He also believes that while he might improve his SAT quite a bit by working on the standard boring essay, where he got a 9, that test will always be harder for him for two big reasons. He got an 800 on the math, 750 writing, 740 critical reading. He is a math and science kind of kid, and half of the ACT is math and science, whereas only one third of the SAT is. Also, he can read fast enough to do well on ACT, but the SAT he found more tiring. There were more tests, not much of a break, and extra tests thrown in that don't even count. The material was more boring, whereas he at least found the ACT science section interesting. While he might improve somewhat, he just thinks that the lack of a science section and the fatigue he felt taking that test would make it so his score would never be as good as his ACT. So we certainly hope that schools consider it as highly, and we read somewhere on this board that at least Cal Tech thinks ACT is a better predictor.</p>
<p>crazy mom- a 2290 sat more than verifies his psat for national merit.
Don't stress about retaking at all (and I wouldn't retake at all especially with taht ACT).</p>
<p>Yes, the subject tests will be necessary for crazy mom's son, but no retake of the SAT I will be necessary at all.</p>
<p>
<p>(table 2.1)
</p>
<p>I can see the number with the highest score, but there is not way to determine how many received a perfect score.</p>
<p>Depending on how the test is designed, it's possible that no one received a perfect raw score, and that this is intentional</p>
<p>It seems that many of non-native (first language is not English) think the SAT is easier than the ACT, while natives get better score on the ACT.
*from personal experience+my friends' opinions</p>
<p>Perfect on the standard scoring scale is perfect enough, and in actual practice there are surely test-takers each year who perfect the item content of the test form they encounter, both on the SAT Reasoning Test and on the ACT.</p>