Beyza NurWhich one do you take?
When beginning the college admissions process, students often ask that which of these two tests will increase their chances of admission into the schools of their choice. College admissions committees do not regard the Digital SAT or ACT as superior to one another. Consequently, it is important that you choose the standardized test that best fits your academic strengths.
The Digital SAT’s Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section consists of a Reading Test and a Writing and Language Test. The Reading Test includes 54 questions, which you must complete within 64 minutes (32 minutes per module). The Reading Test passages on the Digital SAT are generally more difficult than those on the Digital SAT because of the esoteric language used and concepts discussed on the social science, humanities, and natural science passages as well as the antiquated language and writing styles that often appears in the narrative and primary source passages, particularly if those passages are derived from 18th and 19th century sources.
By contrast, the ACT Reading Test includes passages that are much easier to follow because they are comparatively contemporary, with virtually all its passages derived from 20th and 21st century sources. However, the ACT requires you to answer 40 questions in 35 minutes (8 minutes 45 seconds per passage) to compensate for the relatively easier passages.
If you are a quick reader who processes information efficiently and do not want to deal with ornate vocabulary words and abstract concepts, you might be better off taking the ACT instead of the Digital SAT. But if you are a diligent and incisive reader with an extensive vocabulary and have been exposed to a wide array of writing styles, it might behoove you to take the Digital SAT instead of the ACT.
Another critical difference between the verbal sections of the Digital SAT and ACT is that your Digital SAT verbal score is a composite score based on your performance on the Reading and the Writing test modules. The ACT gives you four separate tests score for English, Math, Reading, and Science. As a result, the ACT English Test and ACT Reading Test are independent of each other.
There are minor differences in question types between the Digital SAT Reading and Writing Test and the ACT English Test. For example, the ACT contains questions that asks you to consider what effect would be achieved if certain sentences were deleted from passages whereas the Digital SAT Reading and Writing Test has no such analogue. Similarly, the Digital SAT asks graph analysis questions on both the Reading and Writing tests whereas the ACT does not have graph questions on either of its verbal sections. The ACT English tests consists of 75 questions over 45 minutes while the Digital SAT Reading and Writing Test consists of 54 questions in 64 minutes. As such, the differences between the grammar tests of the Digital SAT and ACT are not as pronounced as they are on the Digital SAT and ACT’s respective English tests.
The Math Test of the ACT includes concepts that are not tested on the Digital SAT’s Math section such as logarithms and matrices, but the Digital SAT contains more advanced math concepts involving Algebra II and Data Analysis knowledge than the ACT does. The ACT’s Math section is not broken into two sections, as you are given 60 minutes to answer 60 questions, so if you are a student who can work through simpler math problems quickly, the ACT might be the better option for you. If you are a student who works through problems meticulously and occasionally employs alternative strategies such as back solving and picking numbers, then the Digital SAT Math Test might cater to your strengths.
Additionally, the ACT contains a 40-minute Science Test, which is completely absent on the Digital SAT. Although there are some outside knowledge questions on the ACT’s Science Test that require you to have a solid high school science foundation, the test is more analogous to a reading comprehension-graph based test in which you are asked to assess what must be true of various studies and visual data presented over 6-7 passages.
As you can see, the decision to take either the Digital SAT or ACT depends entirely on your understanding of your academic strengths and weaknesses. The ACT has historically been a popular choice in the Midwestern and Western United States, but that trend has changed dramatically in recent years with newfound interest in the ACT on the East Coast. The SAT remains as popular as ever and shifted to a digital format for all students onwards 2024, so if you are more comfortable taking standardized tests over your laptop, then the switch to the digital, adaptive format might interest you. Whatever choice you make, you are taking a substantial step toward achieving your goal of admission into a prestigious post-secondary institution.
We at Ivy Learning & Test Prep can help you prepare for both Digital SAT and ACT with the help of experienced tutors!
Watch the testimonials of our students here: https://youtu.be/Dl-lyKNQt9s
Follow us on Instagram
