<p>I am student with aspirations of getting into an IVY league school. I am conflicted with which standardized test to take though. From my research on college confidential, it seems like everyone that gets in takes the SAT and not the ACT. Do these schools reall care which one you take as long as you do extremely well on which ever one you take?</p>
<p>Either one is fine as long as you have a good score.</p>
<p>You might as well take both.</p>
<p>I’d take both.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be better to concentrate your efforts on one instead of two? As they are slightly different tests and there is different material to prepare them. Unless when you prepare, skills are transferable. Like when you learn reading writing and math for SAT, it also helps with ACT, it is like not if you prepare for SAT and then decide to take ACT, you have to start from the scratch.</p>
<p>^ Only if time is limited. If you are a rising junior and has the whole summer to prepare for them, why not? One may want to prepare for the SAT anyway due to the PSAT/NM. While ACT with writing would give your the flexibility of not taking SAT2 or no time conflict with SAT2 in a tight schedule. You would not know which one you can achieve better score until you did at least some practice on both. After all, the performance at the real test may be different due to different section arrangements. My D did equally well in practice but getting much better score in ACT in the end. If you have time to prepare for both, you should really try both. A two months summer break is much more than enough to prepare for both tests. However, if you did not prepare until a few weeks before the test, then you may want to focus on one.</p>