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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
College Admissions:
SAT ACT
Which test is best for your student?
Ned Johnson
Founder & Tutor-Geek
Aaron Golumbfskie
Education Director
vs
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
The Tests
The most important tests for college admissions are clearly the SAT and ACT, but
it’s important to understand how the others fit into the picture.
PSAT
SAT ACT
Subject
Tests
APs
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
The Critics
Redesign is a reaction to the surging popularity
of the ACT
The PSAT provides students real testing experiences without real consequences.
Feedback, while coming late, is valuable for understanding performance.
The PSAT
Administered by schools in October
Just like the SAT but shorter & without essay
Colleges do NOT see the scores, which become
available in December
National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test
Practice precedes perfection. -- Oscar Wilde
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
About half the students we see do equally well on the SAT or the ACT. The other
half perform better on one test relative to the other. Deciding which test to take
should be a thoughtful decision but not a stressful one!
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Students should focus their efforts on the scores that matter most to colleges:
the section scores and, more importantly, the total SAT or composite ACT score.
Scoring
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top.
Then you will see how low it was. -- Dag Hammarskjold
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
US Colleges accept SAT and ACT scores on an equal basis. They’ll consult a
concordance chart to put all students on even footing, no matter which test they
took.
Scoring
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. -- Aristotle
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
The SAT and ACT remain much longer tests than students face in school;
therefore, practice tests are an essential tool for developing stamina and focus.
Structure
The whole is
other than
the sum of
its parts.
-- Aristotle
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Despite the changes to the SAT that make it more ACT-like, the speededness of the
tests can be the defining difference for students deciding which test is right for them.
Timing & Pace
Time is the longest distance between two places. -- Tennessee Williams
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Reading Sections
While structurally similar, students have almost twice as long for the SAT as for the
ACT reading sections. During that time, they face much more complicated passages.
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too
complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. -- Rebecca West
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Math Sections
The ACT covers more math than does the SAT but in a more straightforward way.
The SAT still tends to be the trickier test, requiring students to do more reasoning.
I know a trick worth two of that. -- William Shakespeare
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Math Section - Questions
Problems are wordier and reference real-world applications (as do Common Core
standards). The total number of words on the redesigned SAT – including all section
– will be rising very sharply, increasing the reading burden for students.
Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say,
abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
-- George Eliot
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Writing Sections
The format of the redesigned SAT Writing section mirrors that of the ACT. These
sections tend to be the easiest to improve on either test and thus rarely factor into
the decision as to which test to take.
It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation. -- Herman Melville
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Science Section
The SAT Science section is more about reading charts and graphs than it is about
understanding science, so science lovers might not love it and science phobic
students shouldn’t fear it.
We know very little, yet is astonishing we know so much. -- Bertrand Russell
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
The essays on both the SAT and ACT are now optional
critical responses to a given text rather than open ended
writing tasks.
Essay
The essay question doesn’t change:
While both essays are optional, some colleges may still require students to take
them. Even those, however, won’t weight the results very heavily.
Either write something worth reading or
do something worth writing. -- Ben Franklin
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Which Test: ACT vs. SAT
About half of our students do equally well on the SAT and ACT, so don’t worry if it’s
not crystal clear which test is better for you. There may be no better test, so just
take the one that fits into your schedule.
ACT SAT
Assessment test
Reasoning test
Iowa City, IA
Princeton, NJ
Speed Test Power Test
It’s the SAT…
Predictability
Uncertainty
vs
It’s NOT the SAT
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
APs & Subject Tests
Subject tests may or may not be required – check admissions requirements. Taking
AP classes demonstrates rigor, but acing AP exams is less important.
Math Level 1
Math Level 2
Literature
US History
World History
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Languages
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
English Literature
English Language
US History
World History
European History
Art History
Biology
Chemistry
Physics 1
Physics 2
Physics C
……
……
Subject Tests
Advanced Placement Tests
Demonstrate competency in subject matter for
admissions purposes
Required by some but not all colleges
Taken during SAT administrations
Subject Tests
Advanced Placement Tests
Earn college credit to potentially place out of
introductory courses
Typically tied to year-long courses in school
Taken in a two-week period in early May
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Testing Timeline
The best time to take the SAT or ACT is when your student can be well prepared
and, ideally, well rested, but starting early can provide plenty of options to retake the
test, which often can lower students’ stress levels.
Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days
in the year as you make use of. -- Charles Richards
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Which Test: Effects of Stress
Test preparation reduces anxiety by replacing uncertainty with knowledge, skills,
and a sense of control so that students can perform their best on test day.
Yerkes – Dodson Law
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Many details of the tests have changed over the years but two facts remain
unchanged: they remain a test of acquired skills and, thus, students can prepare
well and increase their scores.
Whether you decide on the SAT or the ACT, it’ll be ok!
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Which test is best for your student?
SAT ACT
vs
Thanks for your time and attention.
Questions?
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