What are college entrance exams?

Colleges and universities often require applicants to take an entrance test to help evaluate their readiness for the university’s education standards. The reason that schools want to know if the student applicant is ready and capable of handling the college-level courses. The most common college entrance exams are the ACT and SAT, which are taken before high school students graduate.

Students and parents often ask what an ACT or SAT means within the college admission process. The tests are to evaluate a student’s readiness for higher learning in college. In general, the design of exams measures knowledge concerning core skills taught through education and problem-solving. There are differences between each test in the way they are written and administered. The student’s often deal with comfort levels and anxieties while testing, but differences between the tests are slight.

What differences are there between the ACT and SAT?

The ACT format:

The ACT has four main sections and measures what the student has learned in school. Scores range from 0-36 for the ACT.

English/Writing – (45 minutes, 75 questions)

• • This part of the test involves five passages students work through and shows the student’s ability to use proper punctuation, vocabulary, word choice, and sentence placement.

Math – (60 minutes, 60 questions)

• • The section covers the students’ learned skills from algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. Students also are allowed to use a calculator for the entire math test.

Reading – (35 minutes, 40 questions)

• • Students read four passages and answer the questions. This portion evaluates a student’s reading comprehension level and efficiency before entering college.

Science – (35 minutes, 40 questions)

• • Students analyze data and short readings based on experiments to answer questions. The students are not tested on their science knowledge here. Instead, the science section measures the understanding of the research performed.

Essay – (optional)

• • The section examines the effective writing from a student with a provided reading and question. Students do not need to take this unless their desired college requires it.

The SAT format:

The SAT gets scored with two categories of English and Math, with two sub-sections in each. The design of the SAT is to predict a student’s ability to learn in college. The cumulative scores range from 400-1600 on the SAT.

English Section

There are two test tests for the SAT English portion of the college admission test. The two English tests get combined into a score ranging from 200-800 points.

English Writing – (35 minutes, 45 questions)

• • The writing part of the SAT covers a student’s knowledge of Grammar, vocabulary in context, and editing skills.

English Reading – (65 minutes, 52 questions)

• • The reading portion of the SAT consists of 5 passages. The readings include types such as literature, historical documents, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Math Section

There are two parts to the math portion of the SAT that test skills in Algebra I and II, geometry, and some trigonometry. The first part of the math section allows a calculator, but the second part is No Calculator Allowed. The SAT combines both parts of the math test to calculate a score from 200-800.

1. Math [calculator] – (55 minutes, 38 questions)
2. Math [no calculator] – (25 minutes, 20 questions)

SAT Essay – No longer offered.

In conclusion, both the ACT and SAT are college admission tests that cover very similar topics and skills. However, the slight differences can impact the performance of students to do their best. If you are unsure which one is better, talk to an application counselor and/or research what the students’ colleges of interest prefer to help with the decision.