Should I study/take the ACT?Answered
I'm a junior in High school wondering if I should take the ACT.
I have already studied and prepared to take the SAT, but don't know if I feel confident about my (potential score). I heard that the ACT tends to be easier for visual learners and that it is more straightforward than the SAT. However, I have already put in a lot of effort towards preparing for the SAT and I'm not sure if its a good idea to just quickly switch to the ACT. I am aiming for a pretty high score on both (1450+) or (32+).
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4 answers
From my own experience, the SAT's questions require you to think a little bit more, but you have more time to answer them. The ACT's questions are a little more straightforward, but you have much less time to answer them. There is also a science section on the ACT that requires you to be able to analyze graphs and other types of data. I would recommend taking both and seeing which one you feel more comfortable with. Then use your time to study for that particular test and increase your score.
You should be taking both tests as practice tests and see which one feels better and which one you do better on.
Then focus all your efforts on taking the one that you did better on.
Hopefully you took this advise and got the kind of score you wanted.
All the best in your college admissions process.
Have you taken any practice tests? I'd strongly recommend taking a practice test or two of both tests and seeing which one you score better on. And when you do the practice tests you should take them like they are the real thing. Print them out, do it in one sitting (breaks included), time the sections, etc.
Generally speaking though the ACT has more straight forward questions but you need to answer more of them which makes the test feel very fast. The SAT the questions can be a bit more detailed and you might need to think about how to answer them more but you do also have a bit more time. The SAT also has a math section with no calculator so if you're not comfortable with math the ACT might be the better choice there.
cracksat.net and crackact.com are good websites to try practice tests and problems and Khan Academy can be good to brush up on specific topics (especially for the SAT).
It depends on the schools you're applying to. To my knowledge, most accept both, and I'd recommend taking each and seeing which you do best on.
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