It’s that time of the year again. The pressure is on. Stress levels are high. The number of hours of sleep is low. It’s college application time. Here in the United States students feel the pressure to exceed and succeed on requires tests. The two tests that colleges and universities expect from their applicants are the Scholastic Assessment Test, formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT for short), and the American College Test (the ACT). Both tests are acceptable to most of the colleges and universities throughout the U.S., but they are quite different.

The SAT was founded in 1926 by the Harvard president who wanted to open up universities to outstanding students all across the country. The SAT grew rapidly in the 1950s and many schools were requiring the test for admittance. The SAT has made changes within the past few years. They added a new writing section and instead of the 1600 top score, it is now 2400. The new test was first administered to the graduating class of 2006.

The ACT was founded in 1959 and like the SAT, was a program that focused on identifying academically strong students who were eligible to apply to colleges and universities.

Today the SAT is more popular than the ACT in the western and eastern coasts of the U.S. The ACT is more popular in the Midwest. But now the ACT is growing more and more popular for many students because

1. The ACT is curriculum-based test. It tests students on what they learned from school. There are no trick questions like the SAT, which is a reasoning test.

2. The ACT does not deduct points for wrong answers unlike the SAT, which deducts ¼ of a point for every wrong bubbled-in answer.

3. The ACT is ALL MULTIPLE CHOICE! There are no grid-in questions like the SAT. The SAT requires test takers to compose an essay within a twenty-five minute time period, and the ACT allows thirty minutes.

The SAT is approximately three hours and forty-five minutes whereas the ACT is a two hour and fifty-five minute test with an optional thirty-minute writing section. The fee for the SAT Reasoning Test is $41.50, and the ACT is $29 with a $14 additional (and optional!) writing section. The UC requires applicants to take this writing section. So total it up, and the price becomes $43. The ACT has four sections only: English, math, reading and science with an optional writing section and experimental section. The SAT is a whopping ten-sectioned test: three in critical reading, three in math, three writing sections and one experimental section. Both tests’ scoring methods are different. The ACT’s scoring method is a 1-36 point system for each subject, which is then averaged for the highest score of 36. The SAT’s point system ranges from 200 – 800 per section with the highest possible overall score of 2400.

But why is the SAT more popular than the ACT? Is it because the SAT, those three letters, have been engraved into our minds since we were little? Is it because even our parents took the darn test and endured the same pain as this generation? Well, for one thing, the ACT isn’t widely advertised like the SAT. Have you been receiving letters in the mail about SAT Revolution Prep courses at a discounted price of $500? How about an ACT prep course? No? I didn’t think so. The SAT promotes their test, providing the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) for students to take. What about the ACT? No, they don’t have a “P-ACT.”

In recent years SAT scores have been declining, and ACT scores are steadily rising (according to an article on fastweb.com). The cause may be from the new SAT, which changed because critics believed the SAT did not reflect students’ academic performances and their readiness for college. The SAT, which I think should be called Stupid And Tedious, is actually stretched out to a draining five-hour period with instructions given by the proctors and break periods AND the test itself.

Senior Yvonne Luu took both the SAT and ACT.

“There are no trick questions on the ACT. It is very straightforward. The science section wasn’t hard. It was pretty basic,” Luu said. “But the SAT twists up simple questions and makes it harder.”

The SAT is still the dominating test. But students should consider taking the ACT also. It doesn’t hurt just to try it out, you may score higher than the SAT and you’ll leave the test center with a non-fried brain.