<p>Hey, international student here. I just finished my IB finals and school (YES!) and now realise I have my SATs in a week and I forgot to buy any prep books because I've been consumed in exams over the past month. I do however have a heap of ACT prep books from when I took the ACT, can I use them to study for the SAT effectively? You can't buy SAT books here and it would take too long to get here if I order online now</p>
<p>The material tested is quite different. You can use great online resources such as sparknotes for SAT prep.</p>
<p>yeah the content is different…for example ACT includes trig…but the SAT doesn’t…
go to the college board website and do a practice test!!! Best of Luck! :D</p>
<p>If you’re preparing just for the SAT, ACT prep books should be fine. However you do not need to go over trig problems, since the SAT doesn’t test trig.</p>
<p>One other option would be to subscribe to the Collegeboard’s Online SAT Course. It is not a course per se, but it does have the concept summary that is also included in the Official SAT Study Guide. This would give you some overview of the concept tested and a summary of key points. The core of the course is the ten practice tests that come in a pdf format. This might be the best bet if you cannot get hold of a hard copy of an official SAT guide. </p>
<p>The ACT is different in style and how they test the ideas. There are some additional topics such as Trigonometry pointed above by @MITer94. I would recommend to stick with official SAT content, because the writers have a specific style and it is best to get used to that.</p>
<p>I would not use ACT materials to prepare for the SAT. There is a lot of overlap in topics and even many of the same strategies can be used on both tests. But there are significant differences. The main differences are:</p>
<p>(1) The ACT has a few more advanced topics, the biggest of which is trigonometry. But there are also a few other random topics such as logarithms.</p>
<p>(2) Overall the ACT tests more advanced material. For example, if you have strong algebra skills, you may perform better on the ACT.</p>
<p>(3) The questions on the SAT overall are much trickier than ACT questions.</p>
<p>The biggest concern is actually number (3). If you are only preparing with ACT questions, you may be sharpening your technical skills, but you will not be working on your problem solving skills enough to improve your SAT score.</p>