<p>Even in NY, more and more kids are taking the ACT too. The GC's are definitely strongly encouraging those who are not satisfied with SAT score to try the ACT test. Remember you do not have to send your score to your HS or any colleges. So you can take it several times if necessary and only send the score you want to the college. My D hated the SAT. Walked away from it after 1 testing and went the ACT route. She wound up doing around 130 points better on ACT than SAT. The SAT was a "mindnumbing" and exhausting test for her. She found the ACT tolerable.</p>
<p>1840 vs 30..i think the 30 is def higher</p>
<p>so if everyone does better... i just dont get it</p>
<p>the only reason i did better tho was the science</p>
<p>im more analytical, but i am better at math, so that quote rings true for me to</p>
<p>if u take my math and reading they are about the same</p>
<p>Not everyone does better on the ACT. It's just the people that didn't do better aren't posting in this thread.</p>
<p>everyone doesn't do better...alot of people BOMB the science section. i mean there is obviously a distribution of scores just like on the SAT. In fact, the old SAT/ACT comparison on CB's website is outdated and ACT scores are actually even stronger now...for example (making this up) if a 30 = 1300 before, it equals about a 1330 now.</p>
<p>I've also heard that it is much harder to make a 36 on the ACT than a 1600 on the SAT cuz I think you have to get every question right.</p>
<p>you don't have to get every question right, you can only miss one question. This boy in my school got a 36 last year, and missed a question in the english section.</p>
<p>its the average on the subsections so u can get a 34 36 36 36 = 36</p>
<p>but it is harder because there are more sections, more variety, and i think the range of diffuculty questions on the ACT is more so there are always a couple hard ones</p>
<p>like ACT always asks one pretty tought math question every year.. but most others r easy</p>
<p>i haven't taken the act, so maybe i'm biased, but i think you should be careful about taking the percentiles for the act too seriously. As we can see in this thread, most of the people who take the act are people who didn't do as well as i they wanted on the sats... so the quality of test-takers is lower, meaning that it would not be as hard to get in the 90th percentile on the act than the sat...</p>
<p>having said all that, i am certainly not a fan of the sat. However, the reason i decided to take it and not take the act is because i think that the sat is more respected among colleges... maybe that is a myth, but i wonder what colleges assume if you decide not to send in sat scores... even if you never took them, they might think you didn't do very well on them.</p>
<p>although that makes sense.. there was a study of over 1000000 students that took both test comparing there ACT to SAT... in the end the figured out a conversion so that is what colleges use</p>
<p>It is roughly 20 points SAT per point ACT</p>
<p>what's the max score on the ACT.</p>
<p>And is the science section hard? See, I can get 800CR/800W on the SAT, but I seem to get only 670-700M. I'm hoping that on the ACT I can get a better math score...And I am the right-brained type. But science is not easy for me...what's that section like?</p>
<p>Its basically interpreting graphs and results from experiments.... really easy for me</p>
<p>I love ACT so much more. Though I didn't do bad, per se, on the SAT (2140), I like my 32 ACT more. SAT Writing: 740, CR: 790; but ACT Reading: 36, English: 35, and I think English/Writing: 35.</p>
<p>ACT is pretty hard actually. There is too little time to do the questions. Also, the curve is really low. Like if u miss one question, u lose a point. So its really easy to lose points. whereas on the SAT, altho u do get points deducted u can still get an 800 on reading even if u didnt get every answer correct.</p>
<p>
[quote]
most of the people who take the act are people who didn't do as well as i they wanted on the sats... so the quality of test-takers is lower, meaning that it would not be as hard to get in the 90th percentile on the act than the sat...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>While the case could be made that less intelligent people take the ACT and therefore it is easier to be in the 90th percentile, it is still a reliable test and there is no evidence to support that claim.</p>
<p>I whole-heartedly disagree with your statement that people who take the ACT are the ones who did poorly on the SAT...much of the country (middle America and the midwest) does not take the SAT at all and is not expected to, because the ACT is the dominant test in those regions (ACT is based in Iowa City). </p>
<p>Obviously there are issues with the fact that there are 2 tests measuring different things but in the end they are both just standardized tests.</p>
<p>I completely agree kcirsch. I live in the midwest and so much emphasis was placed on the ACT. When i lived in Illinois, it was required that all juniors take the test. we had a half day of school where we took the ACT. nothing like that was done with the SAT.</p>
<p>
[quote]
ACT is pretty hard actually. There is too little time to do the questions. Also, the curve is really low. Like if u miss one question, u lose a point. So its really easy to lose points. whereas on the SAT, altho u do get points deducted u can still get an 800 on reading even if u didnt get every answer correct.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The ACT does NOT take points off for incorrect answers. You only get points for the questions that you answer correctly. This is a reason guessing is encouraged on the ACT, because it cannot hurt you.</p>
<p>i think swamy meant that if you get a question wrong, then you drop down from say a 36 to a 35.</p>
<p>It depends. You can get one question wrong on the ACT and get a 34 on a particular section. On a practice test, I got 2 wrong on the math section and got a 32. Every test is different. </p>
<p>I hate both the ACT and the SAT, even though I got half-way decent scores on both. It's a huge money-sucker.</p>
<p>I just didn't like the whole "let's try and trick them" mentality of the SAT. I'll take a straighforward test anyday thank you.</p>
<p>
[quote]
While the case could be made that less intelligent people take the ACT and therefore it is easier to be in the 90th percentile, it is still a reliable test and there is no evidence to support that claim.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>that was point i was making...</p>
<p>anyways, i did NOT mean to insult anyone, i was just saying that in MY experience (and i realize that this is untrue in the midwest), the people who choose to take the ACT do so because they didn't score very high on the SATs. while i understand that many intelligent people take the ACT, especially in the midwest, i still think that the use of the ACT as a backup test in other parts of the country could possibly drag the percentiles down. </p>
<p>I don't think that should have anything to do w/ the conversion of the scores, simply that we shouldn't take the percentiles all that seriously. this is similar to the SAT IIs in which native speakers mess up the curve... you have to take into account who the other test takers are. </p>
<p>i also don't think that one test is more valid than another....</p>