On the one hand, various websites I checked that compare the two tests point out that the SAT gives more time per question, thus may feel less rushed.
OTOH, a presentation given at my kid’s high school last week by the head of guidance and a Kaplan rep said that SAT questions are longer (i.e., reading passages are longer, actual number of words in a math question are longer) - although it’s not entirely clear whether they were comparing new SAT to the old one or to the ACT. The implication was that having to read longer questions balances out the advantage of having fewer questions and that, in the end, both have about equal time pressure.
Is there anyone who has take the new SAT and the ACT and can speak from experience on this topic?
I have taken the new SAT and the ACT, both recently. I found that the math sections on the SAT were comparable to the ACT. The time crunch seemed very similar. In general, even though the readings were in fact longer on the SAT, I was able to throughly read through each passage and ponder on some of the harder questions for an extra minute; With the ACT it is much of the opposite. Overall I definitely thought that the time crunch is better for reading on the SAT but around the same for math. I also noticed that in the grammar section there was a lot more rhetoric questions instead of raw grammar.
In Reading, the ACT tries to create “difficulty” by making the questions non-sequential; that is, the answers aren’t found in the order the questions are. For many students, this boneheaded practice creates time pressure. For students with excellent detail recall, though, this won’t have the same effect. @millie210
I have taken offical practice tests at test prep locations for both and the head of my prep location confirmed 9/10 kids think ACT was easier after they’ve taken the test and say they like the ACT more, however it is a split of 50/50 for the SAT and ACT solely based off the fact that the ACT is so rushed and you have to work MUCH faster I have personal experience with this no prep I could not finish the ACT not even close however I did finish the SAT even though i felt SAT questions were consistently more difficult throughout. However writing was same for SAT or ACT but ACT magnifies writing difficulty by having equal difficulty questions but a lot more of them
ACT also tests a few more grammar principles than the new SAT tests.
My son took both, the March SAT and the April ACT. He felt there was more time pressure on the ACT, with the exception of the no-calculator math section of the SAT. That was the one section he really wanted more time on of all the tests, probably because it is the section that is least like things he does in classes.
Here are the precise numbers:
SAT Reading = 1.25 minutes per question (75 seconds)
ACT Reading = .875 minutes per question (52.5 seconds)
SAT Grammar (Writing and Language) = .8 minutes per question (48 seconds)
ACT Grammar (English) = .6 minutes per question (36 seconds)
SAT Math = 1.4 minutes per question (83 seconds)
ACT Math = 1 minute per question (60 seconds)
Both my kids (Feb ACT, Mar New SAT) said that they felt the time pressure more with the ACT (which the numbers above would support).