ACT vs SAT: Testing Wars Heat Up

The college admissions testing war is heating up. 

The College Board recently launched the new SAT which included pretty significant changes to the test format. Gone is the funky scoring system in which the raw score is calculated by the formula of one point for a correct answer, -0.25 points for an incorrect answer and no points added or subtracted for an omitted answer. Also gone are the Sentence Completion questions that were fill-in-the-blanks to test vocabulary. 

Truth be told, the new SAT seems to be a bit more like the current ACT. Perhaps over the years, the College Board saw many students migrate to the ACT so they felt a rebranded test would lure students back to the SAT. 

But the College Board is not the only one engaging in some friendly competition. 

In an effort to capture some of the practice test market, the makers of the ACT have recently launched the PreACT. The PreACT is designed for high school sophomores to gauge potential ACT scores and prepare students for the ACT in the future. 

The College Board, and its PSAT, have dominated the practice test market for years. Typically administered by schools for sophomores and juniors, the PSAT is a practice SAT. Most schools use the PSAT to get their students ready for the SAT. 

Now that the makers of the ACT have the PreACT, they too seem positioned to target schools and enter the practice test market. 

What does this mean for students? Not much, really. Perhaps some friendly competition between test makers will drive prices down. But in all reality, the strategy does not change: take both tests, find out which one you like better, focus on preparing for one of them and book the best score possible. 

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