Which admissions test to take, the SAT or the ACT? There is a widespread perception that the ACT is easier than the SAT. While this may be true for some students, most students actually tend to score fairly comparably on both tests. And there are even some students who do better on the SAT. In general, the ACT tends to be a little less tricky than the SAT, but it is more of a time crunch.
We generally recommend that students begin with some SAT prep. The reason for this is that SAT prep tends to help with ACT prep a lot more than ACT prep helps with SAT prep.
If a student wants to determine which test is best, s/he should take both a full-length SAT and a full-length ACT within a few months of beginning prep. If the score on one test is significantly higher than the other, then the student should prepare exclusively for that test. If the scores are comparable, the student should go with the test that he or she likes most (or dislikes least), because the more appealing (or less unappealing) the test, the more likely one is to put in the work to improve on it. There are some other factors to consider, such as the scheduling of the tests and a student’s overall admissions profile.
