I know it’s different for everybody, but I’d like to see other people’s opinions. I’ve noticed that people who identify themselves with certain skills, or even test taking techniques, tend to do better on one test than the other.
Personally, I find the SAT easier. I find the ACT questions to be fairly straightforward, but pacing is a pain. I hate having to go “BBBBBBBBB” on the last few questions because I have a minute left. Also, I don’t know about you, but I hate that the ACT bubble sheet is all in one page. With every single section being in one page, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an unfortunate soul out there that accidentally bubbled in the wrong section, tried to fix it and got caught.
Strengths: I’m fairly good at math. Since math is half your score in the SAT, it brings my score up.
Weaknesses: I’m a slow reader, ergo, I don’t finish the ACT reading and writing section.
I have only been speaking English for 5 years. This harms me on both tests, but this shouldn’t be hard to improve.
Your English seems to be very excellent for somebody who has been speaking for such a short time. And to answer the question, I think that the ACT seems to be easier. I haven’t actually taken it yet but the SAT timing was horrendous for me, and I tried a practice ACT and it seemed easier.
If a college “prefers” the SAT over the ACT, it will not impact decisions for admittance of kids who take the ACT instead, that is a fallacy. There are colleges that want SUBJECT tests, though, and those are through the College Board.
I’ve only ever taken the ACT because that’s what everyone where I grew up does, but the idea of the SAT has always seemed super daunting to me. I think that for many people, the harder test is just the one fewer people in their area take. My school only focused on preparing us for the ACT, so I would have been totally unprepared for the SAT!
The ACT is definitely easier. My area hardcore preps for the SAT, and yet a lot of people in my grade could only get to 2100s or 2200s on SAT but got a 34-35 right away on ACT with no extra prep.
The SAT is definitely easier for me because I seem to have a natural aptitude for it. I took an ACT practice test and found the science to be absolutely brutal, especially because I was already worn out towards the end, and I had to guess on the last few reading questions (I always have at least 10-15 minutes at the end of SAT reading). Plus, I love writing the kinds of essays the SAT essay is like, but the ACT essay, not so much. I got a 30 on the practice test, which I probably could have improved on, but I stuck with the SAT instead.
I find SAT and ACT to be in the same difficulty. I got comparable scores (actually identical scores post conversion) on both exams take back-to-back with one another.