<p>I am a sophomore in high school and am planning to take the ACT and SAT this year. I have some questions concerning these tests. </p>
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<li><p>What materials are necessary to bring to the tests?</p></li>
<li><p>How many times can I take each one; will colleges know?</p></li>
<li><p>Which one (in your opinion) was hard all-around?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you know any good strategies to do better on tests?</p></li>
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<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Bump-Bump!</p>
<p>wow, you’re early!
<ol>
<li><p>As much as you’d like I guess. I don’t believe colleges can find out how many times you’ve taken them, you can choose which score reports to send out. However, some schools (ives particularly request all your scores). I don’t know of anyone personally that has taken sat/act more than 3 or 4 times. I’ve taken each one 3 times.</p></li>
<li><p>Act for me. But then again, I don’t think the questions are all that hard (pretty straight-foward), its the timing that gets me. (75Q’s 45 min, 60Q’s 60 min, 40 Q’s 35 minx2)I could make a laundry list of sat & act pros & cons.
SAT & ACT MATH
SAT
I liked math better on SAT than on ACT. Math is my weakest area and I found the SAT math much easier. I also like that there are multiple sections, the ACT has one big math section and keeps you on it for 1 hr.
ACT
Too many geometry probs/stupid formulas to remember for my liking. Theres also 4 trig problems on the ACT. On the act you see each section once. English, Math, Reading, Science, and essay if you’re taking ACT + writing. All in one shot, just like that. The SAT divvys up each section and throws in an experimental section somewhere in the mix.</p></li>
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<p>SAT CRITICAL READING/ACT READING
My sat scores for cr have been slightly higher than act reading. Again, its not impossible to finish your sections up on the ACT, but I like to take my time, and often found myself rushing or running out of time. The act basically gives you 4 long passages & 10 (i believe) questions following each one. It doesn’t help when the passages are boring either. The SAT has vocab sections, really short reading passages, (usually followed by 2 questions) and medium/long (they really don’t seem long) passages. Again, on the sat you may get a CR section, M, M, Writing, CR again, so if you feel like you messed up/were unsure about a few, you’ll see the section again & get a chance to improve your score. So yea, overall my ACT reading scores aren’t that bad, but I like & do better on the SAT CR. </p>
<p>SAT WRITING & ESSAY/ACT ENGLISH & ESSAY
On the SAT the essay appears first & on the ACT it appears last. I’ve gotten the same scores on both SAT & ACT essays (scoring goes up to 12). I do believe though, that I have one higher essay score for the SAT. I like the essay last the best (ACT) & in my opinion, the ACT essay prompts are much much easier to write about, the SAT ones are fine, but sometimes it’ll be a quote that you’ll have to think about for a little before you get your pencil moving. As for writing section. (Sat calls it writing & the “english” section on ACT tests the same thing,>> grammar/rhetoric skills) My scores line up on both the SAT & ACT for this section. This is my strongest area, so it would be hard for me not to score well. Basically both tests ask you to identify sentence errors, fix sentences, & test sub-verb agreement. Oh yea, i believe sat essay is 25 min & act is 30, the essay is one of my favorite parts, so I don’t feel much time pressure. I don’t think they even grade you fully on completion, once I had really bad writer’s block (reallllly short essay, but what I had down was pretty good)&managed to get a 10.</p>
<p>ACT SCIENCE (sat has no comparable section)
Not a favorite of mine, average score. It “tests your ability to think like a scientist.” Some questions are so easy you’d think its a trick question. (e.g. read a bar graph & report data) & Other questions, I have noo idea on, so I just end up guessing…</p>
<p>oh yea, on the ACT always guess, even if you don’t read a question, GUESS! fill in a random letter, because no points are taken off for wrong answers. The sat, I think, takes off 1/4 of a point. Not 100% of that, but I know its less than 1 whole point.</p>
<p>Another way to answer your question, i feel like if I had as much time as I’d like on both tests, I would score higher on the ACT with the expection of math. Who knows? I just think I might be able to.</p>
<p>All in all, its your preference on which test you like better. I know ppl that love one & hate the other and it goes both ways. Try a couple practice tests.</p>
<ol>
<li>umm, practice, practice, practice. Pace yourself. & DO NOT stress out. The times that i’ve taken it and not worried about my score before even recieving it or looking at the clock quite often have been the times in which I recieved my highest scores. My highest score on my SAT was produced in a room with a broken clock lol. </li>
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<p>Sorry for the long answer, I’m pretty detailed. Feel free to ask any other questions.</p>
<p>P.S. lots of the answers to your questions can be found on the collegeboard or actstudent sites (like about what to bring ect)</p>
<p>what were your scores?</p>