For students entering their final years of high school, the topic of college has most likely been tossed around here and there. With the discussion of college comes the discussion of test scores. There is no sneaking around it. Many colleges and universities often require standardized tests scores in order to apply to their school. This means that students wishing to pursue a post-secondary education at a four-year college must consider which standardized test to take. There are two common options when it comes to standardized tests, the ACT and the SAT. Where a student would like to attend a future school could affect his or her decision when choosing between the ACT and the SAT. There are some key differences in these tests that should be taken into consideration.

Test format is the first difference. The SAT allots for more time in certain sections compared to the ACT. For example, the Reading section calls for 65 minutes opposed to the ACT’s 35 minute limit. The SAT also differs from the ACT in that it provides two separate parts for the Math section. The first part is a 25-minute non-calculator test and the second part is a 55-minute calculator-open test, allowing for a total of 80 minutes to work on the Math section. The ACT only allows for 60 minutes for its Math (calculator-open). The SAT’s Writing and Language section calls for 35 minutes. The ACT does provide more time in its English section with 45 minutes. Both the ACT and SAT provide an optional essay portion (50 minutes for the SAT, 40 minutes for the ACT). Based off of this, the SAT does cover more content in a longer time period compared to the ACT. However, the SAT does not provide a Science section which it present in the ACT with a 35-minute time limit. Some of the content covered in the SAT test includes reading, relevant words in context, math, grammar/usage, and the optional analytical writing. The ACT covers areas such as reading, math, science reasoning, grammar/usage, and the optional writing. Much of the SAT provides questions that are evidence and context-based. It strives to focus on real-world problems with multistep problem solving. The ACT mostly provides questions that are straightforward and less difficult to comprehend for the most part. The difficulty level of the problems themselves varies and is randomly placed throughout each section of the test. In the sections of the SAT, the questions increase with difficulty as they go.

Scoring for each of these tests is rather different. The SAT’s composite scoring scale ranges from 400 to 1600. The ACT’s scoring scale ranges from 1 to 36 for each section. The composite score is then found by taking the average score for the sections.

Students who are interested in private schools and schools located on the East and West Coast should strongly consider taking the SAT. Students who are more interested in public schools and schools found in the Midwest or South might want to go with the ACT. However, every four-year college in the United States will accept either test.