<p>I scored alot higher on the SAT in comparison to the ACT. </p>
<p>Since the ACT is considered to test a student's knowledge acquired in school, and the SAT is known to tests a students aptitude for critical thinking etc. , do you think my low ACT will hurt me?</p>
<p>(however, I took the SAT a few months after I took the ACT, so it could look like I just improved ?)</p>
<p>Schools will consider whichever score is better.</p>
<p>Schools that want to test your knowledge require SAT IIs. ACT is treated the same as SAT, and the higher score is considered.</p>
<p>A lot of schools won’t require you to send both–for those, just send the one on which you did better.</p>
<p>Just remember that if you send the SAT, you may need to submit some subject tests as well. Read the requirements carefully for each school.</p>
<p>^ the SAT is the better score, so no problem there.</p>
<p>A school’s Common Data Set section C8 says which, if either, test is preferred/required.</p>
<p>it is common for one to be better than another. That is the advantage of taking both, and NOT sending scores automatically to any schools. Send only the best result to put your best foot forward.</p>
<p>However, if your ACT is slightly better than your SAT, and the school prefers SAT, you have a dilemma! :eek:</p>
<p>When I was helping my S with his stuff we found schools that requested one more than the other, but in our experience schools had conversion charts and in “two seconds” they have the equivalent and it was a done deal from there.</p>
<p>Yes, but because the tests measure different things, the conversions are just population averages, and some schools really do prefer one over the other, and would like to see their preference. E.g., given a choice between two applicants that are alike in every respect (impossible, of course) except for submitting different tests (but at the equivalent average conversion value), the school would choose the one submitting the preferred test (because that test better reflects the culture of the school). That’s what “preferred” means in this context, and they have a reason for their preference. It can be a tipping factor.</p>