Question:The college I'm looking at accepts both. I'm not excatly strong in any one area.
Answers:
Take both. Different people excel with different tests. I've done very well on the ACT each time I've taken it (and taking these tests multiple times really does help, so if you can, do it), but a few months ago was my first time with the SAT and I wasn't sure how I'd do because I'd always heard people stressing over the scores and everything. Turns out I made 30 points below the minimum Ivy League score. I actually liked the SAT's format much more than the ACT.
I'm assuming you've never taken either test before so I would suggest going to http://number2.com and taking their practice courses. They're free and they help you to find your weak spots. Most people don't do as well as they're capable of doing the first time around, so don't be disappointed if your score doesn't seem to reflect your abilities.
sat
I would do both of them. I did both when I was in highschool and it helps when you're not strong in one particular area. It will also be good for you to just have both in case you didn't do as good as you thought on one.
I was told that the ACT is a lot easier and actually focuses more on overall knowledge versus the SAT. You may want to take both to be on the safe side, but know that the SAT continues to have a lot of problems including racial bias etc. The SAT, although supposed to test of knowledge, is actually testing whether the person taking the test can tell which of the two remaining answers (after throwing out the two least likely) is a lie. I actually read that in a study guide put out by the SAT in the early 1990's as I was busy studying for that test. So basically the SAT was trying to see how good a person is at determining whether they were being lied to or not. And the answers are obviously very close to the other. This would be why you used to hear stories of people with lower GPA's getting into really good colleges based on their high SAT scores and then having to drop out because they did not do well academically. The SAT has also been accused of socio-economic and racial bias due to questions like the oarsman-regatta analogy. The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that have the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta". This question clearly refers to a sport popular with the wealthy and a sport that is more popular in Europe than in the United States.
More Related Questions & Answers...