<p>The ACT has been in existence for over 50 years. Although the ACT is more popular in some states, it still seems as if, nationwide, it gets considerably less attention in the media and in books/academic scholarship than the SAT.</p>
<p>Why is that?</p>
<p>And which test do you think is a better measurement of academic ability?</p>
<p>Its mainly east coast that uses the SAT and thats where all the big name colleges are.</p>
<p>imo truly ACT is (even though I did pretty well on the SAT b/c I studied for it), but both can be studied for and both at least for non-liberal arts department feel like they really don’t represent one’s academic ability. I’m sorry but a perfect score in math and science really means jack. As for writing and reading, I don’t really know as I don’t see myself in those fields, but if I can hit 99 percentile for both tests and still have a B in non-honors english, I doubt it represents your ability regardless.</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s odd. I have very high As in my college English/writing classes, yet my prep SAT test was 700.</p>
<p>It’s because the ACT has little to nothing to do with aptitude. The main reason, though, is that the SAT has been around forever.</p>
<p>orion222,</p>
<p>Why do you think that the ACT has little to do with aptitude?</p>
<p>Because the questions are completely standard. There are no traps, tricks, and there isn’t really any reasoning.</p>
<p>ACT question:
What is the greatest common factor of 42, 126, and 210
[Math</a> Questions | Sample Mathematics Questions: Set 1 | ACT Student](<a href=“ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT”>ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT)</p>
<p>SAT question:
If this page was folded along the dotted line in the
figure above, the left half of the letter W would
exactly coincide with the right half of W. Which of
the following letters, as shown, CANNOT be folded
along a vertical line so that its left half would coincide
with its right half?
<a href=“SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board”>SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board;
<p>To be honest SAT neither has much to do with aptitude. You can definitely study for it, its not like you’re score can’t majorly improve.</p>
<p>The ACT science section is pointless, in my opinion, and it kind of turned me towards the SAT. </p>
<p>From the practice tests I’ve taken, the ACT is easier in some ways. The math section requires some more ‘memorizable’ knowledge, but there aren’t really any tricks.</p>
<p>“You can definitely study for it, its not like you’re score can’t majorly improve.”</p>
<p>That’s because the SAT tests on the same questions all of the time. If you were to spend hundreds of hours studying the exact types of questions on an IQ test and wrote a dozen practice exams (assuming that all of the tests were very similar), I bet that your score would improve. </p>
<p>Also note that scientific data shatters that argument. Even after test prep, students only see 10 to 20 point increases on average.</p>
<p>Look at that question I posted above. That question looks like it was pulled right off of an IQ test.</p>
<p>Test prep is a bad example. SAT improvement requires the want to improve. Simply taking a course isn’t enough. The fact that you can improve disproves that the SAT test is an aptitude test. The material itself is studyable hence you can improve.</p>
<p>Although annecdotal evidence isn’t the strongest, I myself went from a 165 psat to a 2300 SAT by studying for it. The point of an aptitude test is to show what your natural ability is, yet if you can change a the measure of your abilitiy, doesn’t that make it not natural but deemed by yourself? The idea of a test that shows what you can do which never changes is absurd; I can’t simply guess the answer to a math question because I’ve done math a billion times, I know it because I know the concepts of math similarily with concepts of grammar as well.</p>
<p>The SAT question looks like a symmetry question, if you learned the definition of symmetry, recognized that the question was asking for symmetry, you could find the answer.</p>
<p>The only argument can be made for CR though as their’s no way to “study” for it. Their’s always practice (again annecdoctal, I “practiced” from a 50 psat to a 720 SAT), but you can always memorize vocab (not based on ability) and reading strength can be improved (however difficult)</p>
<p>“The fact that you can improve disproves that the SAT test is an aptitude test”</p>
<p>Actually, it doesn’t.</p>
<p>Not sure exactly what you mean by the ACT getting less attention than the SAT. Possibly in the east and the west you hear about it more but that is not really true in the middle of the country. Also, be aware that the seemingly quiet and forgotten ACT: (a) is now the test taken during high school by more students in each graduating class than the SAT (it surpassed the SAT last year) and has reached that stage partly because the percentage of students in traditional SAT states who are now taking the ACT has steadily and significantly increased every year in the last 8 years; (b) is now the test that high school students are required to take to meet the requirements of no child left behind laws in about a dozen states and North Carolina, a traditional SAT state, has recently joined that group with the result that the SAT is and will lose more market share, and the ACT is likely to capture more states in the future; (c) continues to grow as an accepted alternative to both the SAT and SAT subject tests (i.e., you only have to submit ACT) in colleges that usually require subject tests (Rice and Columbia recently joined that group that also includes Yale, Brown, and Penn); (d) is now and has been accepted for a number of years as an alternative to the SAT by all colleges that you will find in any of the US News ranking lists; colleges generally now have a no preference policy to which test is submitted for admission except for California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo, which sits in the heart of a state where the SAT has dominated forever, and decided about 6 years ago to state a preference for the ACT. Moreover, that quiet and forgotten ACT and things mentioned above are what led to the College Board, the company that administers the SAT, to announce in February 2013 that it is going to make significant changes to the SAT test in 2014 so that it will focus on the “core set of knowledge and skills that high school graduates need to succeed in college," a phrase that previously has been used to refer to what the ACT does.</p>
<p>I’m from Illinois and the state mandates the ACT. In fact, I’ve never even heard of the SAT until I joined CC, and I’m a junior!</p>
<p>I have heard the number of students taking ACT has exceed that for SAT last year.</p>
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<p>The “media” is based in the east where the SAT is dominant.</p>
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<p>Incorrect. There are a few math questions on the ACT that require reasoning skills. But more importantly, the whole science section is the ACT’s version of reading (aka reasoning) over graphs, etc. And done with SPEED.</p>
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<p>If you (critically) read the study that purports to make this point, you’ll note its extremely self-serving to CB (and full of data holes, such as the type of test prep). More importantly, the authors readily admit that some/many students show 100+ point gains…</p>
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<p>The ACT’s writing section is optional whereas the SAT’s writing section is obligatory. Might that partly explain the uptick in ACT takers?</p>
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<p>Not really. Many schools accept SAT1+SAT2 or ACT with writing. Nevertheless, it seems the problem with SAT does relate to the essay and they may be the main reason to redesign the SAT next year.</p>
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<p>How about this very site?</p>
<p>Sub-Forums : SAT and ACT Tests & Test Preparation </p>
<p>SAT Preparation ( 416,690 Posts | 35,747 Topics ) </p>
<p>ACT Preparation ( 120,357 Posts | 10,078 Topics )</p>
<p>Traditionally, the SAT was used by East coasters. Traditionally, the most ‘prestigious’ colleges were in the East. Traditionally, the East tended to get the most coverage.</p>
<p>The SAT’s connection with the National Merit Scholarship Program could be another contributing factor.</p>