Tutoring News Post

The Great SAT vs. ACT Debate, Revisited

SAT / ACT Percentiles and Conversions, Updated for 2024 and the Digital SAT (DSAT) - McElroy Tutoring

August 4th, 2024: The SAT and ACT are the two major standardized exams used in the college admissions process, and are currently required for admission at many top universities. I’m an expert in both tests, having taught both full-time since my 2002 graduation with honors from Harvard—and having scored perfectly on both, with every question correct.

Today l will compare the two in detail, and possibly help you decide which one to take.

First, you do not need to take the SAT or the ACT to attend college, especially if you are an American resident. There are thousands of colleges and universities, many of which either do not require standardized exams (test optional), or do not consider SAT or ACT scores whatsoever ("test-blind" schools, such as the entire University of California system).

If you do not wish to take these exams / prepare for them, or if you do not have enough time to do so, then you should simply apply to test optional and test blind colleges, and put any extra efforts that would have gone into test preparation into writing your application essays.

That said, this article is intended for those who have decided to take at least one of these exams. This includes 99% of international applicants, who generally do not benefit from test-optional and test-blind admissions policies at US universities.

Not sure which test is better for you? Take a practice test in both. You can then use the percentile table above to help compare your scores. SAT Practice Test / ACT Practice Test

For example, if you are somewhat technophobic, or if you don't own a tablet/computer, then you might want to stick with the ACT.

Delivery/Format: The digital SAT includes 98 questions in 134 minutes of testing time. It must be taken on a computer or tablet in an approved College Board testing center—unless you are able to successfully apply for paper and pencil accommodations.

The ACT in the US is still taken largely on paper, but is in the process of transitioning to a digital format, and will officially be getting shorter next year (keep reading). It currently includes 215 questions in 175 minutes of testing time.

Upcoming Changes to the ACT: Starting in April 2025 for digital testers, and September 2025 for all testers, total testing time will be reduced from about 3 hours to about 2 hours, and the Science section will become optional. (Source)

The new, shorter ACT with Science will include 171 questions instead of the current 215 questions. The new ACT without Science will include 142 questions.

Content: The SAT tests high school Reading (including scientific passages with graphs and charts), Writing, and Math skills. The ACT tests high school Reading, Writing, Math, and Science skills (more specifically, scientific data interpretation). Both exams include an optional essay portion.

The ACT tests a wider range of content than the SAT (ACT math formulas / SAT math formulas). The SAT tests less content, but the questions themselves are more complex.

Length: The DSAT is about 2 hours long, and the current version of the ACT is about 3 hours long.

Thus, the SAT is the clear winner at present—but next year the ACT will be at least 44 questions shorter, and closer to 2 hours in duration: total testing time will be reduced from 195 to 125 minutes. (Source) At that point the ACT will actually be the shorter exam—albeit by only a few minutes of total testing time: 125 minutes on the new ACT without Science, vs. 134 minutes on the DSAT.

Pacing / Room for Error: The ACT is the faster test. The SAT is the harder test—at least on a per-question basis, which is why the SAT allows approximately 67% longer than the ACT per question.

The digital SAT includes only 98 questions in about 2 hours (1.2 minutes / question); conversely, the ACT includes 215 questions in about 3 hours (.81 minutes / question)!   If pacing is an issue for you, then the SAT might be the correct choice. If speed is not a concern, then consider the ACT instead.

More questions means less time per question, of course—but it also means fewer points lost per incorrect answer. Thus, if you are prone to careless mistakes, then the ACT is a better choice. If you rarely make careless errors, but require more time per question, then you should choose the SAT.

Frequency: Both exams are offered 7x/year. The SAT is offered in October, November, December, March, May, June, and August. The ACT is offered in September, October, December, February, April, June, and July.

Official Preparation Materials: The DSAT is still relatively new (first administered internationally in March of 2023), so there is a serious gap in official preparation materials between the SAT and ACT.

For example, the digital SAT offers just 6 practice SATs and 4 practice PSATs via its free Bluebook app. On the other hand, there are nearly 100 official ACT practice tests available (though ACT Inc.'s legal team has done its best to make these exams hard to find on the internet).

Since the structure and content of the ACT has barely changed since 1996, these many historical TIR exams are and will continue to be highly useful to students preparing for the ACT—even for the newer, shorter, Science-optional version due to arrive in '25.

Potential for Improvement: This factor should play a large role in your decision. Yes, you can improve your SAT score significantly with just 5-10 more questions correct, given that there are only 98 questions per test. However, the SAT has recently discontinued the Question and Answer Service that used to allow test-takers to view up to three tests taken per year. This effectively means that students can no longer learn from official SATs, and must instead lean only on their practice results.

Luckily, the ACT still offers the TIR (Test Information Release) service at least 3x/year: in fact, this year ACT Inc. is offering the Test Information Release in September 2024, December 2024, February 2025, April 2025, and June 2025—two more tests than usual!

Thus, the ACT is clearly the better test for long-term improvement of scores.

That’s the good thing about good old-fashioned American competition: when one competitor (College Board) stops offering a service (QAS), another competitor (ACT Inc.) will often double-down on the same service (TIR). As a tutor, I currently have a huge preference for the ACT, for this very reason: my private students and I can actually review and learn from their official exams—as opposed to the digital SAT, which is a black box: the official DSAT score report doesn’t even specify how many questions you answered incorrectly.

Lifetime Limit: There is no lifetime limit to the number of times you can take the SAT or ACT. I suggest that you start testing early and continue often for optimal improvement over the years.

Please do not believe the myth that “colleges don’t like it when you take the SAT or ACT too many times.” Contrary to popular belief, 99% of colleges (including the ones to which a student applies) will have no idea how many times they have taken the SAT or ACT, because the only SAT or ACT scores that a college sees will be the scores that you choose to send them.

To be specific, the only remaining top college that requires (and thus sees) all SAT/ACT scores is Georgetown. Nearly every other top college is happy to consider either your best sitting, or your best superscore (your best score from each section, across administrations).

Superscoring: ACT offers an official superscoring option that automatically sends your top section scores only, whereas the College Board does not. This means that if you want to send your SAT “superscore” to a school, then you must attach the entire score from both exams.

Because the ACT has 4 unique sections, and the SAT only 2, it is easier to improve your superscore on retakes on the ACT by targeting specific areas for improvement.

Calculators: Both the SAT and the ACT now allow calculators to be used for the entire Math section. In fact, the SAT has the DESMOS calculator built-into Bluebook.  SAT Calculator Policy / ACT Calculator Policy

Regional College Preferences: In the old days, it was generally agreed that many schools on the east and west coasts preferred the SAT, and that many landlocked / Midwestern schools preferred the ACT—because these were the scores they were used to receiving, and they wanted to compare “apples to apples.”

I'm pleased to report that this is no longer the case: most colleges don’t have an ACT vs SAT preference; they just want whichever score is higher, and can easily compare the two.

This brings me to my final point: you don’t necessarily have to decide between the SAT and ACT. As many of my private students have done, you can prepare for both, take both—and simply send the score that ends up higher in the end. The skill sets required for the exams have about a 65% overlap, so in most cases preparing for one test is also preparing for the other.