I’m an upcoming senior in high school, and I’m a bit concerned about SAT and ACT scores. I’ve taken the SAT two times, both with no formal preparation (just going through old SAT questions). The first time I scored a 1910 (CR: 580, M: 740, W: 590), and the second time I scored a 1950 (CR: 650, M: 680, W: 620). Thus, I have a superscore of 2010.
I’ve only taken the ACT once, and I got a composite score of 29 (E: 30, M: 30, R: 29, S: 28). I had no formal preparation, but I did look through some old ACT tests. Comparatively, my SAT and ACT scores are on a similar scale.
I’m not sure if I should take the ACT again and see if I can improve, or simply take the SAT a third time. Do you think I should focus more on the ACT or SAT? Which score do you think is easier to improve?
The more important question to answer first is whether you even should retake either test. That depends on colleges to which you are planning to apply. If your intent is ivies, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, or other very high ranked colleges, then you likely need a significantly higher score in either test to create real chances of admission, and thus may consider again taking the SAT (both because you have already shown some ability to improve and because it is superscored at many places where the ACT is not), but even that is questionable simply because you have the issue of whether you can actually get a high enough score to be in the range needed for those colleges. If you are aiming lower than that group, you may already be high enough to apply and should be focusing on things other than taking more SAT or ACT tests.
Prep a little bit and take practice tests for both- whichever you are able to improve more in that short time, focus on that one. Most individuals find one test easier than the other to improve.