<p>I've taken both one time each. For the SAT I did a couple practice tests and a bit of review and for the ACT I just took it cold.
My SAT score was a 2190 with an 800 in math a 720 in Critical reading and a 670 in Writing
My ACT was a 33 with a 31 in writing 33 in math 34 in reading and 34 in science.
My question is first off what should I plan to use, and how should I prepare to possibly retake that one to do better? Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>ACT – gonna be hard getting passed an 800 on math if you know what I mean. 
And writing appears to be your lowest and the ACT doesn’t have a writing that will affect your composite.</p>
<p>Those scores are both pretty good, but I am thinking that the ACT score is better. I think you would be fine using that score unless you’re planning to attend ivy league colleges. Then I would probably retake the SAT. Your math score is pretty amazing. Your reading score is pretty good. As for writing I guess I would just practice writing essays and go over different practice tests in the blue book. If this helps, there’s a new official SAT book coming out in a couple of weeks with ten more practice tests.</p>
<p>Congrats - those are very nice scores. Posted below are your ACT scores converted to SAT equivalents (I have seen this conversion from different sources):
…ACT<br>
…Converted<br>
…ACT.to SAT… SAT
Composite… 33 740<br>
English…? ?<br>
Math… 33 740 800
Reading… 34 760 720
Science… 34 760
English/writing…31 690 670</p>
<p>Overall, your average ACT score (33/740) is slightly superior to your SAT average (730), but 10 points isn’t much for these tests. It’s hard to judge which to submit (or both) without knowing which schools (or types of schools) you are planning on applying to, what other tests you have/plan to take (e.g., SAT Subject Tests and AP), and what your intended field of study is. e.g., if you’re planning on majoring in math you’d certainly want to send your SAT scores. </p>
<p>Overall, without knowing any details, I’d be inclined to send both scores for several reasons:
- it shows you made the effort to take both
- you did very well on both
- you want them to see your 800 SAT math, but you also want them to see that your ACT Reading and Science scores are excellent.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the advice, I’m planning on applying to Cornell and probably several “mini-ivys” and I’ve always been strong in standardized testing so I want this part to especially stick out. What I have found out about the tests is that the grammer sections always tend to be the most difficult for me. I usually do fairly well on reading comprehension on the SATs and I’ve gotten 10s on the essays but I’ve never taken a grammer class so I’m just going off of what “sounds best” to me. If anyone has a more systematic approach to the grammer that would be great.</p>