Knowing the CC’s obsession with perfection, it’s not surprising to see people arguing about which is more impressive to college admission officers. Overall I think the argument is rubbish. I can see the slight difference between a 36 composite and a 2400 because of averaging, but a perfect ACT (36-36-36-36) should be exactly the same as a 2400. The difference is negligible at best considering these are scores achieved by an incredibly small amount of students annually. What’s your opinion on the issue?
I have one opinion: I simply don’t care. A 36 or a 2400, it’s all just one aspect of your application.
It really doesn’t matter that much. I think a 2400 is harder on the old SAT, at least, because I personally feel that SAT tests more concrete knowledge while the ACT is more of a race for time.
More “concrete knowledge”? The SAT is a reasoning test while the ACT claims to test actual knowledge on subject matter. The ACT will ask direct questions because it is testing aptitude, as opposed to the SAT which will ask questions on less difficult material in more complex ways.
I personally think both are at their nature flawed and that neither do a good job of testing important material to determine if a student is suited for college, but I think that the SAT is marginally more complicated. However, I found that the SAT writing section was incredibly poorly designed compared to the ACT English section, and I thought that neither did a very good job of testing math knowledge. Don’t care one way or the other about a 2400 or 36 though. I guess the SAT score says more about a student’s ability since it is less of a time crunch, but I don’t think it’s a huge deal either way.
I agree with imbep49, about the SAT testing concrete knowledge. The ACT is easier because the information is much more recognized and familiar. With the SAT, you either know that vocab word/grammatical error/correction in the sentence or you don’t.
2400 SAT is imo harder than 36 ACT.
bump 10char
What do you guys think about this factoring in to admission decisions. I find it ridiculous that anyone would believe that a 2400 SAT would be more heavily weighed over a 36-36-36-36 ACT, it’s just common sense. They are scores achieved by a handful of students, yet people still argue over the idea.
“yet people still argue over the idea”
You seem to be the only person arguing over the idea.
yeah i don’t see this discussion anywhere
You are talking about slightly less than 2000 HS students per year who get 2400 or 36, about 0.05% of a given graduating class.