Preparing for the SAT and ACT on a Budget

When to take the first SAT and ACT

Spring is the time for high school juniors to take their first SAT^® and ACT^®.  Spring is also the time for seniors to take that one last test to qualify for their chosen college or for that coveted scholarship.  There are 3 SAT tests and 2 ACT tests available for the rest of the Spring.  Students can sign up for the SAT at www.collegeboard.org and for the ACT at www.act.org .  These sites also have a great deal of practice materials available for free.

How to Start Preparing for the SAT

The College Board site has practice questions and explanations for each of the three areas tested by the SAT.  The reading section consists of vocabulary and reading comprehension questions.  The math section ranges from questions over basic arithmetic to questions on Algebra II and Statistics.  The writing section includes an essay as well as multiple choice questions which test a student’s understanding of grammar and usage.   The College Board site has sample essays which students can review to learn how to improve their essays. 

Practicing on the different areas of the SAT will help students become familiar with what is being tested and how to arrive at the correct answer.  When the student is ready, he or she can begin working on the full practice test available on the College Board site.  This does not have to be done all at once.  However, students should try to time each section so that they are able to practice on how best to pace themselves on the test. 

How the ACT and SAT are Different

The ACT test is different from the SAT in several ways.  Most of the skills that are tested are the same, i.e. math, reading, and grammar.  The only section that is new on the ACT is the Science section.  However, the Science section is really testing how well students interpret figures and charts more than their knowledge of science.  Another difference in the two tests is how the sections are arranged.  The ACT consists of 4 longer sections plus an optional essay whereas the SAT has 10 shorter sections.  SAT sections range in length from 10 to 25 minutes while the ACT ranges from 35 to 60 minutes.  How students should approach guessing is also different.  On the ACT, students should answer every question even if they have to bubble a bunch in at the end.  In contrast, since the SAT has a guessing penalty, it is helpful to be able to at least eliminate two or three incorrect answers before taking a guess.  There are different approaches to the best ways to guess, but I prefer for students to work at a steady pace and skip questions if they cannot eliminate at least one wrong answer.  The last difference in the two tests that I’ll discuss is that the SAT provides a list of basic formulas at the beginning of each math section while the ACT does not.  However, students taking the ACT can start by studying the list of formulas at the beginning of an SAT section in order to be prepared for most of the math questions requiring formulas.  Add the distance and slope formula, and the circle equation, and you have most of the formulas you will need on the ACT.

The ACT site, www.act.org , also has plenty of free practice material for students to use in their preparation.  In addition, like the College Board site, there is a full-length practice test that students can take.  Again, this practice test doesn’t have to be taken all in one sitting.  However, students should try to time each section so that they know how to pace themselves.  After they finish the practice test, students can calculate their score and see what areas they need to work on.

Study Guides and Online Courses

After your child works through the online material, consider purchasing The Official SAT Study Guide with DVD for further prep for the SAT or The Real ACT Prep Guide to prep for the ACT.  Both of these books are the best prep books available because they include actual retired tests.  Practicing on actual material from past tests gives students a better feel for what to expect from the real test.  Most of the other prep books on the market include practice tests that the writers of the book created.  Sometimes the writers of these books do a decent job replicating the difficulty level of the actual tests, and when this is the case the books are useful.  But, I have seen prep books that are either much too difficult or too easy, and neither of these extremes is helpful to a student preparing for a real test.  So, stick with prep books from the makers of the test.  These books are around $30 to $35 if you buy them from the bookstore, but are available for considerably less online.  Also, they can be checked out for free from your local library.

The College Board and ACT sites both have online courses that students can purchase.  According to the College Board website, the online costs $69.95 and “you get 10 online tests, 18 interactive lessons and personalized essay scoring.”  The ACT online course costs $19.95 according to their website and includes a “personalized Study Path” and real practice material.

Take both the SAT and ACT Multiple Times

Finally, students should not be hesitant to take the SAT or ACT several times.  Contrary to some rumors, I have never seen any evidence that taking the test multiple times hurts a students chances of getting into their chosen college.  It simply doesn’t make sense that a school would penalize a student for getting a better score on their 3^rd or 4^th test.  On the contrary, the college will simply put the test score into their admission formula and treat it the same as if it were the first test.  In additon, many colleges “superscore” which means they will combine your best math from one test with your best reading or writing from another test thus creating your highest possible score, and then use this for your score.  So this is a big reason for taking the test multiple times if some of the colleges to which you are applying superscore.  Another reason to not hesitate to take these tests multiple times is that you may be able to select which test scores schools are able to see.  The College Board allows you to do this through a program called “Score Choice”.  The best reason to take these tests multiple times is so that you can improve your scores each time you take them.  In my experience, students who have the necessary skills and diligently work on improving their scores will raise their scores.