What's the difference between the ACTs and the SATs?
Is there one that colleges and universities like to see more?
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depends on which colleges applications you are filing. This may have changed but several years ago generally the East and West Coast schools wanted ACT and the midwest schools wanted the SAT.
My understanding is that it’s regional, like kelly said, except that east of the Mississippi tends to want SAT. But, I could be out of date on this since I haven’t taken one in over a decade! Schools in the mid-south prefer the ACT still, in general.
I seem to remember thinking the SAT was harder.(I’d like to take it now to see how well I’d do!)
Like those above me have said, the SAT and ACT are accepted by different schools nationwide, but their scoring systems are different as well, like the SAT will take away points for a wrong answer, but no points are deducted for no answer or leaving the answer blank where the ACT has a different system associated with it.
The SAT also has some “Subject Area Tests” associated with it that some schools want you to take, whereas the ACT is pretty much just the ACT.
Both of these are copyrighted tests that are licensed for MONEY. The companies producing them do so with really only one thing in mind, profit. The two are competitors. Check with a college you’re interested in before you take either tests. Some schools prefer one, some the other, and some don’t require either.
From what I recall when applying to state schools (FSU, UF), at least one was required, but it didn’t matter which one.
I do remember though, that the ACT was alot more boring to sit through.
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