College-bound students are increasingly considering the ACT as an alternative or supplement for their college applications. As recently as 10 years ago, the ACT was required and/or accepted by predominantly mid-west colleges. Since that time, many east and west coast universities are accepting ACT tests in lieu of the SAT. Much has been written on the merits of each, but fundamentally, the decision on which test to take is multi-faceted and differs frm student to student. There are, however, basic differences between these tests. Source: www.collegeview.com
ACT includes trigonometry (typically 4 questions); SAT does not.
ACT has occasional questions on Matrices, Logarithms, Radians, and unreal numbers; SAT does not.
ACT includes “science reasoning”, which is logical reasoning based on data and scientific terms, but not based on classroom science.
SAT deducts points for wrong answers. However with coaching, students can actually use this to their ADVANTAGE.
SAT Math demands scrutinizing the English aspect of math questions. ACT is more straightforward, making it a more comfortable test, but not necessarily easier.
SAT directly tests high level vocabulary. This rewards students who are big readers or are good vocabulary absorbers.
SAT Critical Reading relies more on inference; ACT Reading asks questions that rely more on retrieving information from the text.
The SAT Essay is more likely to ask about abstract topics; the ACT Essay will ask a practical question usually relating to high school life.
The ACT is more fast-paced; there are more questions to be done in a shorter amount of time.
One difference that could be considered “major” is colleges’ USE of the SAT vs ACT: Almost all competitive colleges “cherry-pick” SAT sub-scores, meaning they consider the best combination of Math, CR and Writing earned on different dates. Very few colleges do this with the four ACT sub-scores. Thus for most competitive colleges, a student who does not ping strong scores on all ACT sections on the same day, is being dragged down by one or more weaker sections, whereas the cherry-picking of the SAT scores means one weak section on one day does not hurt.