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 must take the SAT for a graduation requirement. This test is offered during the school day usually in April. Some students may score better on the ACT than on the SAT. It is a good idea to take both (even if they are just practice tests), to determine if the ACT highlights a student’s abilities better.

The SAT has two sections, Evidence Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and Math Section, and an optional Essay test. The Math section is 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 longer a 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.

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 not as high.

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.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat/new-sat-tips-planning

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

While SHS does not endorse any test prep companies, the CCC has compiled a list of local options.

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.