<p>So I'm a junior who's planning on taking the SAT sometime soon. I've heard about the ACT but I'm not sure whether to take it. I've never taken the SAT, except when I was 12 and I got a 1260 (700V, 560M). Since then I've taken the PSAT, in soph year, I got 80W, 71CR, 64M (the math score was insane, I'm actually not bad at math. I got a 78 after taking the practice test honestly this year. We'll see what the new score is.) Anyway, why take the ACT? Who should take it? I heard it's good for "people who perform better in the classroom..." but what does that mean? I get good grades but I'm "good" at standardized tests too. BTW my best subjects are history and english. And I'm also aiming for UPenn, so assuming I get a 2200ish on the SAT (which looks likely if you consider my old PSAT score), is it worth it to take the ACT instead? I just want high scores</p>
<p>I took the ACT because I did really bad on the SAT and I thought I might do better on the ACT.</p>
<p>Just take practice tests of both (be sure to use actual tests because the test prep books of outsiders don't necessarily get the tests quite right). You will see if you prefer one format to the other or score differently. My son scored pretty much the same and so took both. My daughter scored much better on the ACT and so went with that. She also just liked the format of the test better.</p>
<p>One difference is that ACT has score choice. You can take it all you want and just pick which test date's scores you want to send.</p>
<p>For some schools, the ACT will substitute for the SAT I and IIs. Since my daughter's SAT IIs were lackluster (she must have something about how ETS phrases questions or something), she decided to simply go with the ACT and never bothered taking the SAT I. And we live in the heart of SAT country, so everyone thought we were making a big mistake.</p>
<p>Well, she is attending Brown now. So it worked out for her.</p>
<p>She didn't get into Penn, though. If you look at its web site (assuming this hasn't changed), you will see that they haven't much experience in going with applications with only the ACT. My daughter was deferred and then rejected. But there is no way of telling why -- it might have been the absence of an SAT I, the absence of SAT IIs, the absence of APs, her grades and recommendations coming from professors at Brown, they didn't like her essay, who knows?</p>
<p>You won't lose anything by taking the ACT in addition to the SAT I, other than prep time and the cost of the test. You can support other high scores if you do well on both, use the ACT if you do better on it, or use the SAT I if you do better on that one.</p>
<p>My daughter, for some reason, was able to do substantially better on the ACT math test than on any College Board product. I've heard of other students finding the same thing to be true.</p>
<p>Of course, check with all potential colleges to see if they have a preference for the standardized test.</p>
<p>Score choice. Plain and simple!!!</p>