April is the thick of test prep season.
April 25, 2025, at 10:00 a.m.
Most of our students just took the SAT or ACT at school in March and are now prepping for the May and June tests. At the same time, scores are trickling in from the March tests, providing us with live feedback on our students’ performance.
Therefore, this is the perfect time to talk more deeply about the fraught SAT and ACT prep subjects.
The vast majority of our students are currently focusing on the SAT, mainly because the test is shorter than the current version of the ACT. Given the choice between taking a 2-hour SAT or a 3-hour ACT, almost every student will choose the shorter test.
However, now that the Digital SAT is officially one year old, we can see that it is not the best option for many students.
Luckily, the ACT is in the process of changing its test to mimic the length of the Digital SAT, so this will become an extremely interesting option for many students when that change entirely takes place in the fall. But more on that later…
How to Choose Between the SAT and ACT?
The first important step students should take to determine which test will benefit them most is to take practice tests around their sophomore year. These can be the PSAT and PreACT or detailed preliminary assessments that we offer at the beginning of our college admissions process.
This information helps us navigate each student toward the test where they naturally perform better, and that higher starting score almost universally leads to a higher final score.
The second step in test preparation is to find and improve areas of weakness, specifically for the chosen test.
For instance, if a student knows they’ll be taking the SAT and struggles with Systems of Equations, we’ll work through ways to approach Systems questions using the Desmos calculator, a tool offered by the SAT.
After working through a refresher of any weak areas for an individual student, the next step is practicing, practicing, and practicing even more.
Both the SAT and ACT are repetitive and formulaic tests that use the same math concepts, grammar errors, and reading comprehension questions repeatedly. That means that students will improve after seeing the questions repeatedly.
In fact, most high school students need to see a question type they struggle with at least three or four times before recognizing it in a testing scenario. This is why we use dozens of real and previously administered tests, allowing students to work at the same level as the real tests and see question types repeatedly.
Should You Skip the Science Section on the ACT?
Now, back to the changing ACT test. It’s been my recommended test for many years because the questions are more approachable for mid-to-low-scoring students. I’m hopeful it can regain market share in the standardized testing sphere.
As of the fall, the ACT will be approximately two hours long, similar to the SAT. The science section, which often intimidates students, will become optional, and I recommend that almost all students skip it.
The test will only be English Grammar, Math, and Reading, and students will receive more time for each question—all good things.
One final advantage of the ACT is that a lower percentage of a student’s score is based on math.
We have many students who feel far more confident in Reading/Writing than in math, yet on the SAT, half of a student’s score is based on math.
However, on the revamped ACT, only one-third of a student’s score is in math, allowing students who feel stronger in English and reading to maximize their test scores. Most students and parents don’t consider this, but it can be a real boon to lower-scoring math students and a good reason to strongly consider the ACT.
For the rest of this spring and summer, the paper ACT will remain in its current state. However, in the fall, students will have an exciting new option for college admissions test scores.
Special thanks to Miles Kelly for writing this blog post.
Miles is a highly sought-after tutor for ACT/SAT prep from Compass Education Group in Los Angeles. He has helped hundreds of students with diverse academic goals and interests. Miles has worked with students of all learning types and every score level from mid-teens to a composite score of 30 or higher.
Many of his former students have attended prestigious universities like Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. Miles has recently relocated to South Carolina and hopes to use his expertise to benefit the students of the Lowcountry.
