Standardized testing took a back seat in the college admissions process in 2020, with many schools going test optional or test blind, causing the landscape of applications to drastically change. Recently, many colleges have reinstated test scores as a mandatory factor in admission, making them more and more relevant.
According to the College Board approximately 1.4 million students throughout the United States took the ACT and two million students took the SAT, in 2024.
An important factor when considering which test to take is time. The College Board website states that the SAT is shorter, taking two hours and 14 minutes to complete, whereas the ACT’s site says the test takes two hours and 55 minutes.
The ACT contains reading, science, and math sections, as well as an optional writing section, according to the ACT website. By contrast, the SAT contains a reading, writing, and math section according to the College Board.
“When taking the ACT, the reading sections were really long, so you’d read a couple pages and then answer around ten questions about one passage. But when taking the SAT you get a new passage each question,” junior Cassie Colby said.
A major difference between the two tests is how they are scored, with the SAT being graded on a scale of 400 to 1600 and the ACT being graded on a scale of nine to 36 according to the Compass Prep website.
Colby said that the SAT is taken on computers while the ACT is taken on paper.
While the test has been given on paper for many years, people taking the ACT will have the option to take it either on paper or online in 2025, according to the ACT website.
“When I started studying for the SAT I was planning to take it on paper, and with it going digital I felt like there wasn’t a lot of prep materials available for the new form of that test,” senior Ellie Bleharski said.
Bleharski said that she thinks a similar situation will happen when the ACT becomes digital.
According to the ACT website, the transition to digital is to help students maximize their performance and confidence when taking the test.
More competitive schools, such as Dartmouth and Brown have announced that they plan to reinstate SAT and ACT score requirements according to CrimsonEducation.org.
“Those schools on the East Coast are starting to say, ‘Yes, we would like you to take the SAT or ACT’,” said Piedmont and Millenium College and Career Counselor Stefanie Manalo-LeClair.
Manalo-LeClair said that these score requirements have not landed on the West Coast, so many public schools such as the UC’s are still remaining test optional.
“I am seeing more and more students signing up for it every year, specifically many of them are taking the SAT,” Manalo-LeClair said.
According to the College Board, typically, more students take the SAT because it is shorter and there is more time per question.
“I took both of them and studied really hard. I probably wouldn’t recommend that for other people, just pick one and try to learn the ins and outs of that test,” senior Maxwell Goldfarb said.
Bleharski said that she typically took one to three practice tests per week for the ACT and for the SAT she would only take one per week.
“I am still in the process of studying but I studied over last summer and I spent around three or four hours a week just doing practice tests and practice problems,” Colby said.
Colby also said that for the SAT there are many resources available online such as Blue Book practice tests and Khan Academy, which have full length SAT practice tests.
Additionally, Bleharski said she focused more on individual sections for the ACT, afterwards taking practice tests.
According to the Princeton Review, preparation looks very similar between both the SAT and ACT because of the content each test has.
Many students determine whether or not they want to take the ACT or SAT by taking the pre-SAT or pre-ACT.
“I knew that I was going to take the ACT because I did better on the practice tests for it,” Goldfarb said.
On the other hand, Colby said that she scored significantly better on the pre-SAT.
“I liked that the SAT was digital. I don’t like reading digital as much but the SAT provides you with the Desmos graphing calculator which makes it a lot easier for me to solve math problems,” Colby said.
With the new changes regarding the ACT and colleges requiring standardized test scores again, students will begin to think differently about which test they want to take and which one fits their strengths more.
