<p>I just started junior year and I'm starting to think about whether I should consider taking the ACT instead of the SAT since I've heard it tests more based on what you've actually learned as opposed to all the trick questions on the ACT. For those of you that have taken both is one of them significantly easier then the other?</p>
<p>I've taken both. I preferred the ACT, but I'm from the midwest, and it's definitely the norm here. </p>
<p>I'd recommend taking both, simply because the tests are very different from eachother, and many people I've talked to score significantly higher on one or the other.</p>
<p>My advice, as the parent of a student who took both, would be to take the ACT first. If the ACT score is excellent, particularly if it is better than the PSAT score, I'd bag the SAT I and take only SATII's for colleges that require ACT students to submit SAT II's as well.</p>
<p>The reason I'd suggest forgetting the SAT I with an excellent ACT score is that the SAT does not offer score choice. That is, the results of every single SAT I or II the student has even taken is sent to every college to which the student is required to send any SAT score. So if, for example, the student has a lower SAT I than ACT score, the student is not able to send colleges just the excellent ACT plus the required SAT II's; the student is stuck sending along the lower SAT I score as well. </p>
<p>ACT's, on the other hand, do offer score choice, so if the student decides to retake and bombs, or if she decides to take the ACT the first time purely as practice, no one ever has to know the student took that ACT. The trick is not to have the ACT or SAT scores sent directly to your high school, so unwanted scores cannot end up sitting on your transcript when you'd prefer not to share them with colleges.</p>
<p>I agree 100%. My daughter took the SAT and did not too great. Then she took the ACT and scored a 33, which she thought was fine. She won't be retaking either. Likewise, her SAT II scores are fine, especially the Math II. But it is a bummer that colleges who require SAT II scores are going to see that not too great SAT score. We hope they will ignore it. It would have been better to take the ACT first. We didn't understand this at the time.</p>
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I just started junior year
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<p>You have time to ask a lot of college admission officers what THEY think about the different brands of tests, about retakes, about scores from junior year being on your record of scores, etc., etc. Why not just ask them? College admission offices have websites and telephone numbers, and colleges travel around the country at this time of year </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389153%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389153</a> </p>
<p>to talk to prospective students. Find out from the colleges what they think about tests.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, everyone! I'll probably take the ACT first and see how that goes.</p>