<p>Ivies do take the ACT and will accept either test equally. My daughter fared much better on the ACT that the SAT. She had a 2070 on the SAT superscored to 2100. Her ACT was a 34. She was accepted at 2 ivies and now attends one. She was also accepted at other top 10 schools that were not ivies. The subject test though are different and more straightforward. Many schools will waive the subject tests if you submit the ACT with Writing. Think of the time and the weekends that can be saved!</p>
<p>Admissions officers will tell you they really don’t care which one you submit. I think honestly they look more closely at the percentile that the test puts you in. Colleges report the 25-75th percentile scores of their applicants. You can find this info for both ACT and SAT for all of the top schools. You may have to go to their admissions website and look beyond USNWR charts, but the info is there.</p>
<p>I do think that for some students, one test is better than the other. For many students, they do equally well on both. The link by a previous poster that includes the article on how the tests are different is really excellent and worth reading.</p>
<p>Being from the midwest and having sat for both the SAT and the ACT, I can say it’s more common here to take the ACT unless you’re planning to move to either coast for school.</p>
<p>I think it’s best for students to take both right now, I know plenty of people who got a 34 or 35 on the ACT but scored in the 500-600 range in different subjects on the SAT, or people who have near-perfect scores on the SAT but receive a 24 on the ACT. The exams are testing students differently, so each student is going to find that they score higher in one than they do the other. I think that it’s in every student’s favor to try both and to send both scores so that admissions officers can compare.</p>
<p>Not really sure what people are talking about with one test being “harder” than the other. The tests are curved, so your score really has nothing to do with how much harder one test is than the other. Also, pretty much everyone I know who took both did roughly equivalent on them (I go to Princeton).</p>
<p>That being said, anyone who says that standardized test scores have nothing to do with GPA or IQ is just wrong. I’ve never known someone who I considered intelligent who did poorly on either test. Something I have seen a lot is people who think they’re really smart (due mostly to little competition at poor schools) until they have an objective measurement. Then they suddenly claim the test is meaningless or that they’re just a bad test-taker.</p>
<p>That being said, while there will never be a dummy who gets a 36 or 2400, the two exams can both be prepared for very successfully. The very fact that you can prepare for it means that it’s not entirely IQ-based. </p>
<p>I look at it like GPA. Are there geniuses who fail out and idiots who play the system to make A’s? Of course. But it would be silly to say that the average 4.0 isn’t any smarter IQ-wise than the average 2.5.</p>
<p>TKsmom is right. The ACT is universally accepted for college admission in the U.S. The ACT is accepted by all 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S., including Ivy League schools. In fact, 47% of all 2010 high school graduates took the ACT last year.</p>
<p>The ACT may be growing in popularity because they understand customer service. The SAT/College Board has lost sight of that completely.</p>
<p>Here is our experience: Our D has a documented learning disability with an IEP specifying her accomodations which include 100% extra time on tests plus textbooks on tape which translates into DVD/CD’s for standardized tests on all english and reading sections only. We sent full documentation to both the SAT and ACT at the same time. The SAT took 9 weeks to respond. The ACT took 4 weeks. Both companies only allowed 50% extra time and no dvd/cd.</p>
<p>When I called the SAT/College Board to ask for an explanation they said that the people who read the applications for accomodations were in another building in another city and could never be reached by phone. They would make a request for an explanation but it could take an additional 8-9 weeks. I reminded them that my daughter qualified as disabled in our state and since they were doing business here, they should be meeting those same standards. Their response was that they can do whatever they want because “We are the College Board”. No one ever called back. I called back several weeks later and requested a call-back again and never heard from anyone - again.</p>
<p>When I called the ACT, a very nice woman named Jennifer offered to pull my D’s file and take a quick look. She said if anythjing obvious jumped out at her she would call me right back. Otherwise, she would need to pass it along to a supervisor for review and it could take 1-2 weeks. The next day, Jennifer called and said the IEP was written in a slightly unusual manner. Not ‘wrong’, just different. The accomodations were spelled out over pages 1 and 2 rather than all on page 1. A person would need to open the file a read several pages to see that our D qualifield for all the accomodations requested. Jennifer had already spoken to her supervisor, had the file reviewed, and approved us for the next test date.</p>
<p>We spent over $600 with the College Board on our 1st child and plan to only do business with the ACT for the next 2 kids.</p>
<p>I would like to share as a senior in high school this year the ACT offers a completely alternative testing situation to the SAT. As a quick test taker I always had extra time when I took the SAT something that truly bothered me. The ACT was quick paced and did not drag on for as long as the SAT did. I took both tests and got drastically different results. </p>
<p>I took the SAT twice and received a score around 1400. A horrible score and after taking SAT courses that cost me over $1000. </p>
<p>I took the ACT ONCE without ANY PREP COURSES no book, no classes, I walked in knowing nothing about the exam. I received a 25 composite and a 32 on my reading part. I only wish I knew about the ACT earlier so I could’ve spent my money on those courses.</p>
<p>Their latest results:
32,614 students applied
24,854 took the SAT
11,283 took the ACT
3,523 of the applicants took both
Acceptance rate for SAT overall 9.9%
Acceptance rate for ACT overall 8.4%
Acceptance rate for SAT CR 700+ 14.4%
Acceptance rate for SAT M 700+ 13.0%
Acceptance rate for SAT W 700+ 13.7%
Acceptance rate for ACT 33+ 13.0%</p>
<p>Well, my two cents, as a student who has taken both:</p>
<p>I prefer the ACT. It simply comes down to the vocab section. There are thousands of words that could be tested in the SAT vocab section, and to be perfectly frank, my memory isn’t flawless and I don’t have the time or inclination to sit there and make sure I don’t mix anything up. I have an extensive vocabulary, and I read excessively, but I don’t know the definitions of some of the words. Beyond idiotic mistakes, beyond studing math, I would rather take a test that I can ace based on intelligence and knowledge gleaned in school, than I would take a test that requires me to sit for hours and memorize things. </p>
<p>That’s just my two cents. </p>
<p>I recieved a 35 on my ACT and a 2230 on my SAT (I’m sending the ACT, ignoring the SAT), without studying, so I did do better on the ACT, but not by an absurd amount.</p>
<p>Exactly, the 19+n* vocabulary questions that make up about 20-25% of the critical reading section are ridiculously out of place on a supposed reasoning test (*n more questions in the CR passages, approximately 3-5).</p>
<p>That’s not all of the problem, either: there’s even more grammar rules to memorize in the writing section, particularly obscure idiomatic phrases and what not. I have some other problems with the section, but I would be ranting.</p>
<p>In summary, The ACT doesn’t require as much memorization as its rival test; it is why I also did better on the ACT (34) than the SAT.</p>
Doesn’t your school want you to build your vocabulary? Neither of my DDs studied for the SAT. You would be better off looking words up while you read if you don’t know them.</p>
<p>Perhaps with a good dictionary at hand along the way, since childhood, you’d got better scores than already excellent ones, without much study. I’d guess many top SAT/ACT scorers are like that.</p>
<p>I’ve learned quite a few vocabulary words in school, and while reading I do look them up if I can’t figure them out from the context, but memorization is just not something I enjoy. If I don’t memorize words, there will always be one or two that I just don’t remember. I just have no desire to study for these tests, and a perfect SAT score would require memorizing words. That’s why I prefer the ACT. Then again, there might be people who have had extensive SAT vocabulary included in the curriculum at school and for them it wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t fall into that category.</p>
<p>The ACT is, in my experience, a more highly calibrated test (by competitive design) than the SAT. The ACT exposes more areas of needed improvement and weakness than does the SAT. My thinking is you should just prep for the more BEATABLE test, not the more ACCURATE test. As always, this is a case by case call depending on the student’s skill set. Establishing a personalized strategy crafted through One on One tutoring with someone who knows what they are doing is the best method of test prep for either SAT or ACT. If I were betting on the best possible tutor and the best possible student studying for both tests - I’m betting the SAT score is highest every time.</p>
<p>Must you send in both test scores, or can you pick and choose between SAT and ACT tests as to which to submit to colleges? Here’s the drill for a rising senior. </p>
<p>SAT with writing and Specials May and June, 2011. Repeat as needed early fall, 2011.</p>
<p>ACT with writing: June, 2011. Repeat as needed early fall, 2011</p>
<p>Will apply to one school ED, one EA and others.</p>
<p>I prefer the SAT. I just felt it was a better test–a test that really made me think. Whereas the ACT I just felt was just a test to see how fast you could move–they just don’t give you enough time.</p>
<p>Isn’t that precisely the point? The SAT is a reasoning test in that you <em>reason</em> through the questions in order to find a decent answer. The ACT is an achievement test, in that you should be able to answer all of the questions in the allotted time. It tests how fast you can answer high school level questions in a short and accurate manner.</p>