Today we're going to talk about the SAT vs. the ACT: which test should I take? I am going
to debunk myths, I am going to talk about which reasons are actually good reasons, and
hopefully by the end of this process you will be able to decide for yourself: ACT or SAT?
Students tell me, "colleges prefer the SAT, so I'm going to take the SAT and not the ACT."
That may have been true 25 years ago, when your parents were applying to college, but
in this day and age, it is a big fat lie. Completely mendacious. It's a specious claim.
Harvard. University of Chicago. Princeton. All these huge, major schools have come out
and said, "we don't care! Take whatever you want!" "I'm going to take the ACT because
I heard it's easier than the SAT." Here's the problem with this statement. Just because
it feels easier doesn't mean your score is better because you're being graded on a curve,
everybody else in the United States is taking the same test you are, so it's not about what
feels easier, it's about how you do on that test compared to everybody else. Students
tell me, "I'm going to take the SAT, not the ACT, because I never took precalculus." The
hardest problems on the ACT are those problems that deal with precalculus, so the hardest
problems on the SAT don't necessarily deal with precalculus, but you might still be getting
those wrong. See which math section you're scoring better on, and that usually is a better
gauge than just looking at the fact that you haven't had precalculus class. It is true
that time is your worst enemy on the ACT. If you are not good at time management, if
you're the kind of person who is really good at getting everything right but you need a
lot of time to do it, you might do a little bit better on the SAT than the ACT. Students
tell me, "I'm horrible at science." They have some poor track record in science at school
that's going to translate to their science score on the ACT. But what a lot of students
don't realize is that the science section of the ACT has really very little to do with
what you actually do in science class at school. You see, the ACT science section is really
a lot of chart and graph reading. As long as you know the scientific method, and you
know what a hypothesis is, and you know some basic science principles, you may actually
be able to perform very well on the ACT science section. "I have a really short attention
span and I've heard that the ACT is shorter." It's true that the ACT is about twenty minutes
shorter. However, the SAT sections that are individual are shorter than the individual
ACT sections. So, if you have a short attention span, you actually might like the SAT better
because you get a lot of breaks, even though you have to sit for 20 minutes longer overall.
If you are horrible at vocabulary, if you are terrible at vocabulary, and that is your
one problem in standardized testing, you might be better off on the ACT. But you need to
keep in mind that the reading comprehension is not the only section of the test. You've
got to look at all the sections of the test before you really make a decision. The number
one reason to take either test over the other test is that you're better at one of them.
The best thing for you to do, if you really want to answer this question, you need to
sit down and you need to take a practice SAT and you need to take a practice ACT. Now,
if you've already taken the PSAT and you've taken the PLAN, you can use those as tools.
If you haven't taken those tests, download both of those, take the test timed, grade
both of the tests, and then go and find the ACT/SAT concordance table - I'm going to give
you the link right here - look up both of your scores and see - are you doing significantly
better on one versus the other? Then, and only then, are you going to be in a position
to make the best decision for you whether you're going to take the SAT or the ACT. I
hope this was helpful for you, I hope you learned something about the differences between
the ACT and the SAT. If you liked this video give us a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel,
you can also tweet me @supertutortv. If you still have questions about the SAT or the
ACT or the college admission process or anything else, feel free to post your questions in
the comments below. And if you see questions below that are questions that you have too,
give them a thumbs up, give them a like, and I'm going to answer the questions with the
most likes in a future video. Thanks for watching supertutortv, and good luck studying.