SHOULD YOU TAKE The New SAT OR ACT?

ALL-IN EDUSPACE insight into THE NEW SAT AND ACT

For students in grade 11 (or Year 12) planning to apply to top US universities, it is time for you to start preparing for the standardized tests.  The most popular question is which one you should take – the ACT or the SAT. Make an informed decision by knowing who you are, what areas you are comfortable with, and how you can showcase your aptitude. The SAT is famous for its killer 'SAT vocab' – highly sophisticated words that are rarely used in daily life. The ACT, on the other hand, is well known for its strict time constraint. Both tests undergo revisions from time to time, with the latest overhaul done by the College Board (the SAT test maker). The redesigned SAT was first administered in March 2016; 10 years after the previous revision occurred in 2005.

Overall, the new SAT has now become more similar to the ACT in terms of structure and focus. The overhaul of the SAT also results in fewer questions and removed guessing penalty. Like the ACT, the new SAT also treats essay as optional!  Read on for more details.

1. Goodbye killer 'SAT vocab'!

The SAT has claimed to move into incorporating vocab that will be useful throughout your life, i.e. “vocab you'll use long after test day”. The College Board took similar approach as the ACT. Great vocab bank will still be proven useful, but trying to remember 1,000 SAT words no longer makes sense. Allocate your prep time to other aspects of the test.

2. SAT questions are 'trickier' than ACT questions

The SAT focuses on reasoning skills and specific details. It requires you to dissect and analyze the questions in depth. The new SAT reading added evidence questions, which ask you to indicate which part of the passage supports your answer to the previous question. On the other hand, ACT questions tend to be more straightforward. It tests what you already learned from high school. It focuses on how well you study and how you perform under pressure. With one minute per question in the math section and less than one minute in the reading and science sections, it is either you know the answer, or you don't.

3. The ACT has a science section

If you're worried about this section, you will soon realize that you do not need to have scored A in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, etc., to answer the questions successfully. It actually has no theoretical questions that require prior knowledge of any science subject. In fact, it is similar to science passages you find in the new SAT. You just need to look past through the jargon, and apply some common sense in drawing connections between the question and the answer.

Now, for Indonesian students or students studying in Indonesia…

Indonesian curriculum tends to be more focused on English grammars than vocabularies, and have relatively strong math foundation. Since the ACT is also more focused on math, Indonesian students may be better off taking the ACT than the SAT. With straight forward questions, the time pressure of the ACT may not be a problem for us. While there is no more killer 'SAT vocabs' section, the new SAT introduced evidence-based reading and writing questions which require students to analyze techniques that an author uses to persuade the audience. The writing section is different from the old SAT in which students present their position on an issue. These aspects require a great reading comprehension ability, which could be lacking in Indonesian students who are non-native English speakers and who do not read regularly. It is not impossible to ace the test, but one should learn how to approach the 'tricky' questions in the SAT. In addition, the SAT has just been introduced few months ago, which means limited resources available for your preparation.

The moment of decision: which one to take

Take BOTH practice tests to get the general feel of the two tests and to know what to expect. Look at your scores and see which one you did better on. Don't forget to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Is it the time pressure? Or the complexity of the questions asked? If both scores are pretty much on par, pick the one you are more confident doing. One thing to remember: schools do NOT prefer one score to the other. So, your main goal is to achieve YOUR highest score in either. Decide early so that you can strategically prepare for a particular test, as each has unique features that must be approached differently when preparing. Remember, it's all in the preparation. P.S. If you're interested in side-by-side comparison among the old SAT, the New SAT, and the ACT, you can refer to the table below.