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The SAT and ACT have many elements in common, because they both test college learning preparedness. To this means, to perform well on either test, you need to review virtually the same material, while understanding that they are being tested in different ways. Both exams work through different sections to be able to assess whether you are prepared to learn college level material, so it is obvious that both exams will work to test you at higher levels of preparedness than you have previously been exposed to. That being said, the two tests are inherently different in their testing styles. Here are some of the key differences.

1) The SAT is composed of three sections: reading, writing, and math. Although the math exam itself is broken down into sections where you are allowed to use your calculator and sections where you are not, it is considered one cumulative section as far as scoring goes. The ACT, on the other hand, is composed of four sections: reading, writing, math, and science. This added section of science can either be an exorbitant strength or weakness for a student, depending on their abilities in each section, respectively.

2) The way that reading, writing, and math are tested are extremely different between the exams. As a general rule of thumb, the SAT is much more of a comprehension based exam, while the ACT is more knowledge based. This means that the SAT tests students by providing more application based questions, while the ACT tests students' knowledge directly. Specifically as this applies to reading, the SAT will have connected questions that test your understanding of passages, as well as questions that deal with more subjective capacities. Instead, the ACT reading portion will include many more vocabulary based questions, as well as more direct inferential questions. With regards to the writing section (not to be confused with the essay), the SAT and ACT both test very similar concepts, and the differences between the sections in the two exams are almost entirely based off of the length and difficulty of the passages, with the ACT housing more difficult timing challenges and difficult passages. Finally, where math is concerned, the SAT does divide the math into two sections, allowing the use of a graphing calculator for only the second set of questions. The ACT, though, does not pose this restriction and allows the usage of the calculator throughout the exam.

The largest difference between the two exams can be observed in the inclusion of the science section on the ACT exam. Since the essay portions are no longer required, there is no need to discuss the differences between those. In order to prepare yourself to perform well on the science section, go ahead and visit our ACT Science course!