There are currently two types of exams that students can choose from in order to be considered for most colleges in the United States - SAT and ACT. While there has been constant debate as to whether SAT or ACT is favored, research has shown that both generally have been weighed equally in the college admissions process. After taking this into consideration, whether your student should take the SAT or ACT exam becomes more nuanced, focused upon a number of factors that I will elaborate below.
Time Management
When students are taking either the SAT or ACT exam, Royal Education has noticed a consistent pattern when it comes to how long students take for each exam. Both exams, without breaks and including essay, are lengthy (ACT being 3 hours and 35 minutes, and SAT being 3 hours and 50 minutes). That being stated, we have noticed that SAT tends to give students less pressure on time.
This can be attributed to the number of questions that students have to finish for each exam. The charts below will show you the breakdown for the number of minutes along with number of questions for each section for the two exams:
When creating the comparison between SAT and ACT, it is evident that ACT is a lot more restrictive in time. When comparing the two sections that are labeled the same (Reading and Mathematics), the time difference is significant. In the ACT Reading portion, students are expected to finish 40 questions in 35 minutes (around 1 question per 52.5 seconds), while in the SAT Reading portion, students are expected to finish 52 questions in 65 minutes (around 1 question per 1 minute 15 seconds). In the ACT Mathematics portion, students are expected to finish 60 questions in 60 minutes (around 1 question per minute), while in the SAT Mathematics portion, students are expected to finish 58 questions in 80 Minutes (around 1 question per 1 minute 23 seconds).
This shows that students have less time on each ACT question than SAT question. While the SAT problems, especially in the Mathematics portion, are more verbose, students tend to be capable of finishing the SAT more easily.
Science Section
Additionally, it is evident that the ACT incorporates a section not seen in the SAT exam: Science. Royal Education has seen that students that especially are weaker in the sciences or are not as fast in data analysis tend to score low on this portion. Many times, this factor alone is enough for students lean towards taking the SAT rather than the ACT. But, it is important to note that we have also seen students who have found the Science section to be the easiest to improve their score on.
English Skills
While both SAT and ACT already measure students on their English capacity through the Reading and English / Writing & Language sections, the student’s strength in English can dictate whether to take one exam or the other. After SAT has incorporated the Common Core standards into many of its problem, this has caused many of SAT’s Mathematics problems to become lengthier, incorporating more word problems. While this may not be a significant enough of a factor to weigh the ACT over the SAT, it is something to be taken into consideration.
These are some distinctions that we feel will help guide your child on deciding whether to focus on the ACT or SAT. Dependent on each student, one exam may be easier in comparison to the other. We recommend that students, even if the student just started 9th grade, should start trying both exams to see which one is the better fit or easier to improve on.
With the Winter Break coming up for schools, please consider Royal Education as the place to go in order to have your child start or continue preparing for the SAT or ACT. The closest dates after Winter Break for each exam are the following: SAT Exam is on March 9th, while the ACT Exam is on February 9th. We have designed our Winter Session so that students can receive the necessary practice and targeted focus on common errors that students make. By doing so, our goal is for the students to be able to take the upcoming score and reach their fullest potential. Feel free to reach out to us through the following outlets if you have any questions about our services, or about anything else:
Website: www.royaled.net
Phone Number: (818)-275-3424
Facebook: www.facebook.com/royaleducationinc
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/royaleducation
