SAT or ACT

By Ranvitha Chirumamilla, 6th grade

Have you ever thought about going to college? Well if you have and decided you'd like to go to college, then one thing that you should be aware of is taking Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or American College Testing (ACT). You have to take one of these in order to go to college. The colleges in the United States accept both the SAT and ACT tests (you don't need to take both) so most students are confused on which one to take. Many of you are disoriented whether you should take SAT or ACT tests or if you should take both. Well today I will clear your confusion and help you decide whether you should take the SAT or ACT test.

Before I tell you about the SAT and ACT tests you must understand that neither of them are easy, both of them require a lot of practice. If you really want to go to college and if you are dedicated to it, then you would get good scores on your test. First I will tell the difference between them and tell you what sections the tests have. One of the main differences between the SAT and the ACT is that the ACT includes a science section and the SAT does not. The SAT does test scientific skills through some of the other sections, but does not have a dedicated science portion like the ACT does. So if you are not so confident with a whole section in the test for science, you might not feel as confident while taking the ACT test. The ACT test has five sections; english, math (all calculators), reading, science, and essay, however the essay is optional. The SAT has four sections, reading, writing & language, math (No Calculator and Calculator) and an essay that is optional. Although the SAT does not have a science section, science questions are spread throughout all sections of the test.

Next, I will tell you how much time you have to take the SAT and ACT tests, I will tell you how many reading passages you have, and what the math section covers in both tests. In the SAT test if you are taking the optional essay you have 3 hours and 50 minutes. If you are not taking the essay in the SAT test you have 3 hours. The SAT covers 5 reading passages in the whole test. For the math section you have Arithmetic, Algebra I & II, Geometry, Trigonometry and Data Analysis. In the math section you can use a calculator for only some of the questions. Now I will tell you about the ACT test. For the ACT test you have 3 hours and 40 minutes if you are taking the essay, but if you are not taking the essay. You have 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete the test. The ACT covers 4 reading passages. It also includes Arithmetic, Algebra I & II, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Probability & Statistics for math. You can use a calculator for all of the math questions on the ACT test.

So now that you know more about the SAT and ACT tests, I hope that this helped you figure out which test is best for you to take. If you are taking one of these tests soon, good luck!