<p>Hi all,
Thanks in advance for your replies, btw.
Anyways, I'm taking the SATs in a year or so. I'm starting to study up now, on words and definitions and special books and what not (what books do you recommend, btw?) I was thinking about whether to take the SATs or the ACTs. I'll probably end up taking both, but I'm curious about your scores for both, and if you guys got into colleges and what colleges. Thanks so much, I'm just curious. My basic question, I know it's different for everyone but - ACT or SAT? Thanks!</p>
<p>ACT’s are better I think</p>
<p>Thanks for replying. What was your SAT and ACT scores? Do you go to college - if so, which one? Thanks so much,</p>
<p>no, i am a freshman in high school
I took the SAT in 7th grade and got a 1630/2400
I just took the ACT on December 12</p>
<p>Don’t take the SAT, its pointless. A billion vocab words to memorize and questions that apparently measure your readiness for college (***…?). Trust me, take the ACT. Just need to prepare well and know your school stuff in depth and you will score high.</p>
<p>Do not take your ACT’s cold. Get the real ACT book, practice the format (get your timing down), and then try it out. Also, try to take it on one of the Test Information Release dates (December, April, June) so you can get a copy of your test, your answers, and the correct answers.</p>
<p>I personally thought the ACT was better because I do not have an “extraordinary” vocabulary, and I just didn’t like the SAT.</p>
<p>I got an 1160/1600, 1540/2400 on the SAT (did not send anywhere).
I got a 29 ACT, (31 superscored) with 32’s in math and reading.</p>
<p>The ACT is easier for me, because it tested things that I actually learned in high school (specifically on the math). Just remember, the ACT is not for slow workers in any way. The test is not hard, it is the timing that is most hard. Good luck!</p>
<p>Colleges seems to respect the SAT more meaning if you got a 2300 on the SAT…they would love that better then a 32 on the ACT for some reason…but ACT is for peole who want to test on thing they learned directly in school
ACT-Cirriculum based test. Test what you learned in school.
SAT- Reasoning test. Test deductive reasoning skills.</p>
<p>That being said, if you know alot in your hgihschool classes, ACT would be great. If your a great thinker, SAT might be good. I suggest trying both and compare your scores…
Hope i helped!</p>
<p>My D got a 2060 on the SAT and took the ACT a month later with no additional prep - got a 33, which is a much better score than her SAT. Colleges will take either test now, some will accept the ACT with writing in place of the SAT and SAT II tests.</p>
<p>Colleges weigh the SAT and ACT equally. Don’t let anyone tell you different. its not college policy to favor one over the other.</p>
<p>I took both the SAT and ACT cold.
I am from the midwest where we are taught to the ACT, I had to drive an hour to take the SAT.</p>
<p>Anyway, I got an 1860 on the SAT in 2008. (I’m retaking it in Jan.) And a 33 on the ACT in 2009.</p>
<p>I like my ACT score better.</p>
<p>I like the SAT better and prepped more for it, but did better on the ACT. I think studying for the SAT helped me with the ACT.</p>
<p>Whoa so much ACT love, poor SAT. I personally like the SAT better, but I think it depends on what type of person you are and what type of score you want to get. (this might be long…)</p>
<p>The ACT is more straightforward, in the sense that it involves less test-taking skill and less studying vocab. This sounds like a good thing, but if you’re a test-taker (like me) it’s not. The SAT is curved, so you’re being compared to other people who have taken the SAT, as opposed to just the number of questions you get right; if you’re not tripped up by the little test-taking tricks in the SAT, you’re already at an advantage, since you’re being compared to people who ARE tripped up by the wording/formatting or aren’t as good at memorizing and logical reasoning and whatnot. Another good thing about the SAT curve is that you can miss a question or two and still get an 800. For example, I missed 1 question (not omitted, like actually got incorrectly) in the CR section and still got an 800. On the ACT, if you miss one question, you’re not getting a 36. The way the ACT is curved, it pretty much doesn’t help you at all if you’re on the higher end of the scale. That makes it MUCH harder to get a perfect/nearperfect score on the ACT. Getting above a 30 is relatively easy, getting a 33 or above takes a lot of effort (unless you’re Alix apparently, wow). A 33 is like a 2200ish. On the SAT, there’s a lot of variation above a 2200 - clearly, a 2300 is going to look better than a 2210, right? And while it’s difficult to go from a 33 to a 35 on the ACT, it’s pretty simple to go from a 2200 to a 2300 on the SAT (in my opinion)</p>
<p>The best plan is to study for both, take both, and use your better score. </p>
<p>I got 800s on SAT CR and Math, and a 740 on writing (The 8 on the essay killed me… I’m sort of a terrible writer under time constraints). 35 composite on the ACT (I don’t remember the individual sections, but I know the lowest was a 32 English/Writing and the highest was a 36 Science)</p>
<p>OH AND if you’re taking the SAT, get the book “Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT”
It’s my absolute favorite of all time. It’s not boring, like most review books, and it doesn’t attempt to teach you in extensive detail the curriculum on the SAT, which you should already know by junior year. It’s mostly testing technique and other miscellaneous tips. And there’s a really good vocab section too, with awesome mnemonics - I barely had to study at all, I just had to pay attention while reading it and the words stuck with me. Hopefully they haven’t changed the book too much in their recent editions. Yeah go check it out.</p>
<p>I took both, got a 2080 on my SAT and a 34 on my ACT, which is way better in comparison. The ACT has fewer larger sections, while the SAT has a lot of smaller sections.</p>
<p>Take both , some do better on one than the other. Personally I thought ACT >>>>>>>>> SAT</p>
<p>I got a 33 on my ACT with no prep. I absolutely hate taking the test though. To me it is the most painful standardized test to take, but when I took the SAts as a sophmore I did a lot worse (even though I prepped a bit, and liked the test better). My SAT score now is higher than my ACT equivalent but then again I only took the ACT once. It all comes down to preference so I’d take both test to see which one you like better</p>
<p>I love the ACT in comparison to SAT. My score isnt amazing, 27…twice XD (im re-taking). SAT I did TERRIBLEEE in, I hate it. So many annoying little sections. I suggest ACT XP</p>
<p>People usually do terrible on the SAT the first time they take it (with little/no prep). The SAT is A LOT easier to prep from. College board releases so many REAL exams, it’s virtually impossible to run out. How many real ACT’s do you get? Three?</p>
<p>IMHO the SAT is a “studiers” test, while the ACT is a “test-takers” test. For the SAT, you study some vocab, learn the tricks, minimize silly mistakes, and you’re bound to get an exceptional score. For the ACT, you can work through the three practice tests and learn mistakes and hope for the best, isn’t much to it.</p>
<p>study “some” vocab? ***? There are so many vocab words on the SAT it would take an epic nerd to memorize them.</p>
<p>You’re approaching it wrong, wanago2college. I spent virtually no time studying vocab, and I got all the vocab questions. There are only 5 answer choices - you don’t have to know all of the words, just enough to be able to guess the right answer. Get a GOOD words list, like Up Your Score’s, a lot of them have a whole bunch of useless obscure words that you really don’t need to know. Don’t waste time with flashcards either, because you don’t need to know the words that well. As long as you read over the words and know what type of word it is (positive or negative connotation, that type of stuff; if it inspires any sort of emotion, it’ll be easier to remember), you’ll be fine. This sounds insane, but words tend to sound like what they mean. Like “cacophonous” and “mellifluous” - even if you had never seen those words before, if you were down to those 2 choices and the sentence was something like “I love listening to this harpist, her music is so _______” you’d know that mellifluous sounds like the right choice. If you don’t, you need to read more.
Also, a lot of the words on the SAT are your English class vocab words, so pay attention to those…
I’m actually not a huge fan of the whole Latin/Greek roots thing, but the other kids in my Latin class and I seemed to have way less trouble on vocabulary than most other people I know, so hey, maybe that helps.</p>
<p>Another mistake a lot of people make is not guessing. You get 1/4 of a point wrong for each guess, even if you’re entirely clueless and guessed on every question, you’d get 1 out of every 5 questions right. By probability, that means that you’d get a raw score of 0 (-1/4 point x 4, +1 point x 1). Which is the same as you’d get if you omitted every question. One of my least favorite things about the ETS is that they managed to trick everyone into not guessing; it messes with your psyche. Even if you’re not sure, write an answer down anyway (you’re almost never entirely clueless, so you’re better off guessing than omitting).</p>
<p>I remember taking a Princeton Review administered practice test cold, having no exposure, prep, or familiarity with the test… nothing. I just wanted to see what it was like and, frankly, at first I hated it. The English section was confusing to me because I’d often misread questions. I also didn’t know some Trigonometry yet, and felt the math section was harder. I also didn’t realize you had to support BOTH sides in your essay, so I didn’t do so well on that. And what was up with that SCIENCE section?!?!?! You see, I took the SAT in the past and was only familiar to the SAT’s style of questioning. But, I ended up walking out with a 29 and a 6 on the Essay; however, it was a practice test. After that incident I thought I’d never want to take the ACT again.</p>
<p>HOWEVER… I really love the ACT now. The English is so easy… I consistently get 34’s and 35’s on practice tests for English. The Reading is also straightforward, and I usually get 32s or 34s. The science can either be very good or very bad… depending on how late it is and how tired I am when I practice these sections. But math is my biggest problem because even though I’m in precalculus as a 10th grader… I have difficulty with the math on the ACT. On the SAT, I can get in the 750+ range for Math, but I struggle with ACT Math and end up getting 30s-33s. I don’t know why. But in general, my composite for the ACT is usually a 33-34, with potential of breaking a 35… so I see no reason why I shouldn’t like it and decide to take it. I only like the Essay and the Math of the SAT; I hate its CR and Writing sections. The writing section doesn’t test your ability to write. I’m a prolific and apt writer, and I always score in the 10-12 range for my SAT essays. Yet, I don’t show the same success in my writing sections. At best I get in the low 700s. But I don’t see how memorizing grammar rules and going through trap holes to locate some “error” in a sentence is an indicative of writing skill. Anyways, I’ll end up taking both, but at this point, I favor the ACT slightly more - but not completely.</p>
<p><strong><em>KNOCK ON WOOD FOR MAINTAINING THE AFOREMENTIONED SCORES AND HOPES</em></strong></p>