ACT - PreACT - SAT Testing

No, colleges/universities do not have a preference between these two tests anymore. All colleges/universities treat these tests equally in terms of admission.

In Illinois, all juniors are required to take the ACT as part of their graduation requirements. This test is offered during the school day, usually in April. Some students may score better on the SAT than on the ACT. It is a good idea to take both (even if they are just practice tests) to determine if the SAT highlights a student’s abilities better. If you have further questions about what is best for you or your student, please contact your student’s counselor.

**PLEASE NOTE: for the school day ACT required for graduation, the Writing section is NOT OPTIONAL. All students must complete all sections of the exam.

The ACT has four sections, English, Reading, Math, and Science, and an **optional Writing test. The four subsection scores are averaged together for students to receive a composite score (out of 36). Students can use their calculator throughout the whole math section, and all answers are multiple choice. Students tend to have less time per question than on the SAT, but the reading level tends to be lower.

The SAT has two sections, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and Math Section, and an optional Essay test. For the Math section, you are now allowed to use a calculator during both modules. It is no longer broken into two parts: calculator and non-calculator. They also have open-ended questions for Math.  The two section scores are added together to provide the total (out of 1600 total). There is no penalty for guessing, and compared to the ACT, students have more time per question overall. The reading level of the SAT tends to be higher.

Compare ACT and SAT Scores

Would you like to know what your score would be on the other test? Check out this document.

No! Both scores are considered equally for admission and scholarship consideration.

After students receive their scores, if they qualify for a test fee waiver, College Board allows for 2 SAT score fee waivers and ACT allows for 4 ACT score fee waivers throughout their high school career.

Kaplan provides free ACT preparation courses and materials that include real ACT practice questions and test formats, allowing students to study using authentic content directly from the test creators. Use this link to access free resources through Kaplan:

https://www.kaptest.com/act/free/act-free-practice-test?srsltid=AfmBOoqyNRqkn_EWTAHLEFLC_lz0R206Kf2mrazFVmZIgsd2P5hMe1p9

Khan Academy provides free, customized, test prep for students. Students are able to connect their College Board account, with a Khan Academy account. Khan Academy will then take their current scores and provide support in areas that are needed. Use this link for SAT tips and strategies:

https://www.kaptest.com/sat/free/sat-practice?srsltid=AfmBOopjd_VmPEszIFE7C1FqSNKY7qz946OmTEV8vwvHqsRqaOC37oef

Stevenson offers a five-day summer school test prep class for the ACT and/or SAT. Students will take a practice test on the last day of the class. Families can check out the offerings on the summer school web page. 

SAT provides an app for daily practice, more info can be found here: 
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/daily-practice-app

When available, your scores are posted online and accessed using your myACT account. Use this link to access your myACT account: 

https://my.act.org/account/signin?location=https://my.act.org

1. Go to the Student Score Report homepage.
   • You'll need to sign in to your College Board account to view this page. Once you're signed in, your most recent score should be shown at the top of the page. You'll also see a Show Additional Scores option to see all your previous SAT and PSAT-related assessment scores.
2. View your score summary and click the See Score Details option to view additional score insights.
   • Additional score insights include information about your performance against college and career readiness benchmarks, score comparisons and percentile ranks among testing populations at your school, district, state, country, and/or all testers worldwide, and your knowledge and skills in four content domains in reading and writing and four content domains in math.