<p>Hi,
I am a senior in high school and because I was moving abroad in late september (coming here in the US) I missed the nearest ACT date, which was somewhere in mid-October...
I am a 3.9GPA student and I am applying for my colleges, I have done everything and I have the test scores left, only...</p>
<p>My only question is, since I am late and I want to have good chances to do well at the tests and I won't be able to make it anytime after this opportunity, do you think I should give both the ACT and the SAT in the same month? Both are somewhere at the beginning of December...</p>
<p>I'm a very good student as I mentioned and I have taken the ACT math and science only previously, and scored a 32, but will it be too much of a load to study for both tests and will the information get misleading and mixed up in my head or the more knowledge for both tests the better?</p>
<p>The strategies for the tests are pretty similar. The main differences I’d look at are the vocab on the SAT and the science section on the ACT, but other than that I wouldn’t worry.</p>
Thanks for your reply! I was wondering, I’ve read around the forums to not use the “Real ACT Prep Guide” books anymore because the tests have started to become harder, is that true? Because I was planning to buy some of those books :(… Also I have the Princeton’s Cracking the ACT, does that help?</p>
<p>And lastly, what would you suggest for the SAT?
Thanks, I appreciate it!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t know much about ACT test prep materials (I didn’t really prepare for it since I had just studied for the SAT, scored a 32 anyway). Don’t know about recent difficulty, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it is gradually getting harder.</p>
<p>I used PR’s Cracking the SAT, reviewed some commonly tested grammar rules, and my writing score went up 100 points in an instant.</p>
<p>Meh. It depends on how much time you can dedicate to studying for each test and what score you’d be happy with. You can certainly do both, but you’ll be splitting your time and energy over two tests…and there’s an opportunity cost to doing that.</p>
<p>Students should plan to take the ACT or the SAT at least twice if they want a good shot at scoring as high as they possibly can.</p>
<p>Have you considered waiting until next year (Fall 2014) to apply to college? It would give you more time to assemble your college application (standardized tests, recommendation letters, etc.) and adjust to life in the U.S. before entering college.</p>
<p>On a related note, I don’t really understand how you could have taken only the Math and Science sections of the ACT…without taking the entire test. Perhaps you’re talking about scoring a “32” on a practice test, which isn’t the same as performing at that level on the real test.</p>
<p>Be careful on the essay section, because the writing on the ACT is a different type of essay than the one on the SAT. Also, the guessing penalty on the SAT does not apply to the ACT, so keep that in mind as well. Good luck!</p>
<p>My daughter took them a week apart last June. She prepped for the SAT a bit, but very little for the ACT. She found the tight time limits on the ACT science and reading portions the biggest and most surprising challenge. Her scores were comparable with the SAT coming out the higher of the two. She ended up retaking the ACT and did some practice on those sections–boosted her composite score a couple of points. She didn’t find taking the tests so close together to be a problem. It was most difficult because she was sick with a miserable cold for both of them.</p>