I’m a test prep tutor. Many of my students take both. Pre covid, this was the norm. Less so now, and this season, most kids are taking the SAT. I find that often, everyone wants to do the SAT/ACT because that’s what their friends are doing, then the pendulum swings the other way.
It really depends on what test works best for your child. Your kid can try a practice of each test, easily available online, to see if she performs better on one than the other.
As far as taking both, one of my kids only took the SAT. My other kid took both. He got a near perfect score on SAT math, and perfect scores in Reading and Science on the ACT, so he submitted both of his test scores. So, yes, there can be reasons to take both. In general, I think students who are likely to do well on these tests benefit most from taking both. They are more likely to end up with a score situation such as the one my DS had. Or more likely to just get that bit higher score on one of them that makes it worth submitting over the other.
To give more context, my general advice is that students overall are able to get a slightly better score on the SAT than the ACT. This is due to a number of factors.
- The ACT is super fast paced. So many kids simply can’t get through it in time and either leave blank answers or rush like crazy and get loads wrong.
- ACT math is more difficult, albeit more straightforward. It goes to a higher level than SAT math.
- The ACT science section throws many kids off kilter. They are perplexed by it, their brains are fried at that point in the test, and they simply run out of time.
However, neither test is easier than the other. The SAT is much more generous with time, but the reading section is fiendishly difficult. Most often, that is where students are likely to have the lowest score. I often suggest students try the ACT just because SAT Reading is so hard.