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The pandemic brought about a large-scale change to the admissions cycle. With a large number of universities going test blind, this difficult choice seemed to be a thing of the past.

But all of that has changed in the past two years. 

The admissions process considers a wide range of criteria while selecting the students that would thrive in their respective environments. And in the past year or so, there has been a shift towards accepting test scores again.

But which one would work best for you? To answer that question, let’s take a quick dive into understanding the differences between both of the tests.

Source: ACT vs SAT – What’s the Difference? | ACT

The SAT has proposed its biggest changes in their format in March 2024 and has transitioned to an adaptive digital format which means the test is now shorter than its earlier three hour format with the new test lasting  just two hours and 14 minutes.

Their new adaptive format also means that the students performance on a set of questions sets the difficulty level for the subsequent questions.Students are also allowed to use graphing calculators on the math section of the new version of the SAT. The test is broken down into two sections: a 64-minute reading and writing section and a 70-minute math section. The ACT lasts two hours and 55 minutes, though the 40-minute optional writing test would stretch that to a little more than three and a half hours. The ACT is composed of a 35-minute reading test, 45-minute English test, 60-minute math section and 35-minute science test.

With any test the key is always practice and practice. This handy comparison guide from the Princeton Review serves as a great way to compare the different aspects of each test. 

Compare the ACT and SAT tests

• ACT includes a Science section
• SAT is a computer-based test

	SAT	ACT
Why Take It	Colleges use SAT scores for admissions and merit-based scholarships.	Colleges use ACT scores for admissions and merit-based scholarships.
Test Structure	Evidence-Based Reading and WritingMath	EnglishMathReadingScience ReasoningEssay (Optional)
Length	2 hours, 14 minutes	2 hours, 55 minutes (without essay)3 hours, 40 minutes (with essay)
Evidence-Based Reading and Writing	2 modules	4 reading passages
Science	None	1 science section testing your critical thinking skills (not your specific science knowledge)
Math	Covers:ArithmeticAlgebra I & IIGeometry, Trigonometry and Data Analysis	Covers:ArithmeticAlgebra I & IIGeometry, Trigonometry, and Probability & Statistics
Calculator Policy	You can use a calculator on all math questions.	You can use a calculator on all math questions.
Essays	None	Optional. The essay will test how well you evaluate and analyze complex issues.
How It’s Scored	Scored on a scale of 400–1600	Scored on a scale of 1–36

However, remember to make any test work, you need to spend the time to prepare for it. There are a lot of practice options available online as well as tips to help ace the test. After you have identified your weak areas and had time to improve on them, it’s time to decide which test would work best to highlight your unique skill sets.

Let’s set the ball rolling this summer!