Is it common to score well on ACT if you only prepped for SAT and just took few ACT practice tests online during week of the exam?
Why are you asking? Are you worried…or did you do well?
My child wants to take one, just to see if she does better there.
It is a good idea to try both tests, to see which one a student does better with. Everyone will have a preference.
However, if your child is looking at schools that don’t allow score choice and require all tests ever taken to be sent (Georgetown, Stanford, for example) then these attempts should be diagnostics, IMO. Don’t take an official test until the student feels confident they are ready.
What year in HS is your kiddo? Has she taken either test yet? Did she do any preparation for the one she took? Some kids do better on one test than another.
What sorts of colleges is she aiming for (your other threads imply elite schools)?
What is her current ACT or SAT score?
Thank you poster @yonceonhismouth
I don’t know, but my senior didn’t do so hot on the SAT after taking a semester long prep class in school, but got a 30 with no prep at all on the ACT!
I’ll ask her to take two full online tests for ACT before taking a real one so she won’t end up sending bad scores to colleges who want to see all scores.
If your kid is best at intuitive, critical thinking, and figuring out problems she/he may never have seen before, take the SAT.
If your kid is best at absorbing a wide variety of information from his/her environment and classes, and retaining it, take the ACT.
Some kids are good at both, so it doesn’t matter. They can take both tests and decide which score is higher. But most kids will be stronger at one or the other.