The Differences Between the ACT and SAT

If you’re a high schooler getting ready for the college admissions process, you may be wondering about the differences between ACT and SAT exams. Versus the SAT, the ACT generally presents questions in a less complex manner but requires students to know more advanced concepts and work more quickly. However, our experience working with thousands of students over the last 17 years is that fewer than 5% of students will score significantly different on the SAT vs the ACT.

After the SAT remade itself in 2016, the ACT and SAT are incredibly similar and the overwhelming majority of students will score equivalently. Both the SAT and the ACT test core concepts from Math, English, and Data Analysis. They are both peer-normed tests (you’re scored in comparison to your classmates). The ACT has an optional essay section, while the SAT no longer does.

Setting new test-optional policies aside, top colleges like Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford could not care less which test you take (so long as you do well); both the ACT and SAT are nearly universally accepted at US colleges. The ACT and SAT go back and forth between which exam is technically more popular when counted by completed tests; depending on the year, the ACT and the SAT each test between 1.7 and 2.2 million college-bound seniors.

As of 2023, the College Board is in the process of making significant changes to the SAT, with future plans like administering a fully digital SAT and allowing a calculator through the whole math exam. As new changes are rolled out, we’ll update this article to reflect those changes. 

Should You Take the ACT or the SAT

Wondering which of the two exams you should prep and sign up for? In our opinion: take them both. When you start to get serious about your ACT/ SAT prep—hopefully early in your junior year of high school—start by taking a practice test of both the ACT and the SAT under timed conditions.

Focus your energy on the test that you scored better on—or, in the likely event you scored equivalently, focus on the test you felt more comfortable with. When it comes time to take an actual ACT or SAT, take them both if your time and budget allow.

Preparing for one test will almost equally prepare you for the other. And doing any preparation at all will also likely help you out in core academic classes in school like Math, English, and Science.

ACT vs SAT Comparison—Key Differences

1. Pacing: SAT vs ACT Timing

The ACT requires students to work 30% faster through more questions. On the ACT, you’ll have just under 3 hours to work 215 questions (excluding the essay section)—on the SAT, you’ll have 3 hours to work 154 questions.

2. SAT Math vs ACT Math

• The ACT includes more advanced concepts but presents questions in a simpler way than the SAT.
• The SAT Math test doesn’t get much more difficult than Algebra 2, whereas the ACT includes some advanced concepts from Precalculus.
• The SAT Math test includes some science problems—the ACT Math test does not include these questions, because that is the role of the ACT Science test.

3. SAT Reading vs ACT Reading

• The SAT Reading test contains more historical texts, whereas the ACT is mostly contemporary (which may be easier to read for some).
• The SAT requires students to support some answer choices with evidence from the passage on the reading portion; the ACT does not.
• The SAT Reading test includes a handful of data analysis questions; the ACT Reading test does not include these questions, as that is the role of the ACT Science test.

4. SAT Writing & Language vs ACT English

• The SAT Writing & Language test is shorter and slower than the ACT English test. You’ll be answering 44 questions in 35 minutes, while the ACT English portion allots 45 minutes for 75 questions.
• The ACT English tests include questions about the “passage as a whole,” but the SAT does not.
• Again, the SAT Writing & Language test includes a handful of data analysis questions; the ACT English test does not, as that is the role of the ACT Science test.

5. SAT Science Questions vs the ACT Science Test

• The SAT scatters 21 data analysis and science questions throughout all sections of the test, whereas the ACT has an entire 40-question (35-minute) test mostly dedicated toward data analysis in the form of the Science Test.
• The ACT Science test includes experimental design questions where students have to understand how to manipulate variables; the SAT does not have this.
• The ACT Science test will occasionally ask 1 to 2 “outside knowledge” science questions, which expect students to know some basic scientific concepts.

6. ACT Essay vs SAT 

The ACT focuses on crafting an argument after being presented different points of views. The SAT no longer has an essay section.

SAT Reading versus ACT Reading

The SAT and ACT are similar in how they test the skills students have learned in their English and Language Arts classes. Both tests contain a section that focuses on reading comprehension, and both contain a section that focuses on English grammar, style, and editing.

The SAT has an overall maximum score of 1600, and 800 of those possible points come from what the College Board calls “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing” (with the other 800 being associated with Math). “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing” (or EBRW) is just a fancy name for the first two sections of the SAT—the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test—combined. Each of these tests has a maximum score of 400 points, so they factor equally into a student’s EBRW score on the SAT.

The ACT, meanwhile, presents its English and Reading Tests as two of the four multiple-choice sections on the ACT (the other two being Math and Science). For each multiple-choice section, the student’s raw score is converted into a “Scale Score” from 1 to 36. The average of the student’s scale score from each section results in their overall ACT score, or composite score. So, the English and Reading sections each have equal weight in determining a student’s composite score.

At the end of the day, then, English and Reading each make up one fourth of a student’s score on the ACT and on the SAT. Knowing that neither test strongly favors language arts skills over math skills or vice versa, then, it’s important to compare the format and content of each one – since understanding which test is most suited to a student’s skillset can help give them an edge when it comes to scoring highly and gaining admission to the college of their choice.

Length and Timing of SAT and ACT Reading Tests

Let’s start with the basics: the length and timing of the SAT and ACT Reading tests.

This brings us to our first key takeaway:

• The SAT Reading test is longer, but the ACT Reading test requires students to work more quickly.

It could be said that the SAT Reading Test is a marathon with its length exceeding one hour, and the ACT Reading Test is a sprint, with less than one minute allotted for each question—and that’s without taking reading time into account.

This isn’t to say, however, that working through the SAT Reading Test should be done at a leisurely pace; it justifies its longer length with its inclusion of 5 passages, as opposed to the ACT’s 4, and with the way it asks questions (more on that below).

Types of ACT and SAT Reading Passages

In terms of the reading material students will see on the SAT and ACT, the breakdown of passage types is similar between the two tests:

The general story is the same with both exams—students will encounter a mix of literature, humanities, and STEM passages, regardless of which test they take. Moreover, students can consistently expect to see a paired set of two, shorter passages on each test. One key difference, however, lies in the age of each passage:

• Compared to the ACT, the SAT contains a greater proportion of passages that are older—for that reason, they can be more difficult to comprehend for many students.

In an analysis of three official SAT practice tests, the oldest passages were from 1791 and 1792. The tests also included passages from 1857, 1869, and 1911, alongside more contemporary passages from as recently as 2014. Other passages fell somewhere in between, with years of publication including 1938, 1953, and 1999.

In a similar analysis of three official ACT practice tests, the oldest passage was from 1984, and the bulk of the passages were published in the early 2000’s – including two from 2002 and three from 2008.

Before writing off the SAT for its inclusion of more antiquated passages, though, keep in mind the differences in timing and test length discussed above: while the ACT’s passages may be written in more up-to-date prose styles, students must work through them particularly quickly and efficiently in order to maximize their scores.

Types of ACT and SAT Reading Questions

A final area of difference between the SAT and ACT Reading sections is the types of questions that students are asked.

On the surface, the SAT and ACT are very similar in this regard; both break their Reading questions down into 3 main categories that roughly correspond with one another:

What sets the tests apart here are two key question types that you’ll find on the SAT, but not on the ACT:

• The SAT’s Reading Test contains “evidence questions” and questions that require students to analyze quantitative information (that is, graphs, tables, and charts). The ACT’s Reading section does not.

“Evidence questions” require students to locate the “best evidence” for the answer to the immediately preceding question; they look like this:

These questions show up frequently on the SAT Reading Test (there can be as many as two per passage) and they require students to carefully read the lines referred to in each answer choice to determine whether they contain key evidence to support the answer to the previous question. This creates a subtle layer of complexity to the test, in that “evidence questions” may be challenging to get right when the student is unsure about their answer to the previous question.

The SAT’s Reading Test also contains quantitative information in the form of graphs, tables, and charts that accompany 1 or 2 passages in each test. The passages that include these figures will generally be accompanied by 2 to 4 questions that test students’ understanding of the graph, table, or chart itself, or of how the quantitative information in the figure relates to the information in the passage.

In contrast, quantitative information doesn’t show up on the ACT’s Reading Test—largely because the ACT tests students’ data analysis skills through the Science section, which the SAT does not have an equivalent for.

SAT Writing and Language versus ACT English

The differences between the Reading Tests on the SAT and ACT are generally much more significant than the differences between each exam’s test of grammar, style, and editing. The SAT’s Writing and Language Test and the ACT’s English Test both present students with a series of passages, each of which is paired with a set of questions that refer to particular words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs within the text.

On both the SAT and ACT, these questions ask students to:

• Determine the appropriateness and correctness of various aspects of a passage’s grammar, punctuation, and word choice.
• Determine whether (and why) particular sentences should be added to or deleted from a passage.
• Determine the logical order of ideas and sentences in a passage.

As with the Reading section, the differences between the two tests begin with timing and question count:

In short:

• The ACT English Test requires students to work more quickly compared to the SAT’s Writing and Language Test.

Apart from timing, there are just a couple of other key differences to consider when comparing the two exams:

1. On the SAT’s Writing and Language Test, one or two passages is accompanied by quantitative information (in the form of graphs, tables, or charts). In order to answer certain questions, students must consider how (or whether) the information in these figures supports the information given in the passage. In contrast, the ACT’s English Test does not include any figures for students to analyze—just written text.
2. Compared to the SAT, the ACT’s English section more frequently tests students on their comprehension of an entire passage. For instance, the set of questions associated with a passage will frequently end with a question like this:

These questions about the “passage as a whole” do not have a direct equivalent on the SAT – though the SAT does test similar skills by, for instance, asking about the effectiveness of a given introductory or concluding sentence.

Ultimately, these differences are relatively minor; for most students, any preference between SAT Writing and Language and ACT English will come down to their level of comfort with answering questions about grammar and style quickly and efficiently.

Summary: SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing versus ACT English and Reading

At the end of the day, it’s impossible to make a definitive statement about whether the SAT or the ACT is “harder” – and the same applies when comparing individual sections of the two tests. More than anything else, the SAT’s Reading and Writing and Language Tests and the ACT’s Reading and English Tests are just different from one another.

Those differences are often subtle, and the best way to determine which test will give a student the best opportunity to score well and impress college admissions officers is to try them both out, and to then compare their performance on each test, side-by-side – as well as their subjective level of comfort with the timing and content.

It’s also worth noting that any preparation a student does for the SAT is not wasted effort in the event that he or she ultimately decides to shift focus toward the ACT, and vice versa – the skills learned in preparing for one test are highly transferable, so it’s okay to change course midway through the college preparation journey.

The ACT Math Test versus the SAT Math Test

Standardized, cumulative math tests should all be the same, right? After all, the two standardized tests used for college applications (the ACT and the SAT) in the United States must be very similar in what they are testing; otherwise, how would colleges rate the comprehension of a student of basic college readiness in mathematics and science?

Although this may seem to be the most logical conclusion, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. The differences between the SAT and ACT math tests are many, and each test favors a different type of student.

The SAT, with its 58 math questions in 80 minutes total, is split between a 25-minute no calculator portion and a 55-minute with calculator portion. The ACT consists of one math section of 60 minutes to answer 60 questions.

This averages out to a pace of approximately 1 minute and 23 seconds for each math question on the SAT and exactly 1 minute per math question on the ACT. While 23 seconds doesn’t seem like much, consider that this means a student would need to be answering questions at a pace that is approximately 38% faster on the ACT as compared to the SAT.

The immediate question that comes to mind if you’re prepping for the ACT Math portion is: “Why on earth would the ACT require such a faster pace of its students?” The answer to that question lies in how the ACT asks its questions and the concepts that it expects students to know.

ACT vs SAT Math – Trigonometry

The ACT tends to ask questions in a simpler way, while requiring the student to know and understand higher level math concepts. While basically every question on the SAT can be answered with a first semester of Algebra 2 or lower, the ACT requires concepts that often aren’t taught until the end of a Precalculus course.

A great example of this is question 55 from the 2018-2019 released ACT:

To solve this question, the student must know that csc x = 1/sin x and that since the period of sin x is 2π , the period of csc 4x is 2π/4 or π/2.

What the question is asking is very straightforward and not confusing. The challenging aspect of this question is whether the student has encountered and understood both what periodicity of trigonometric functions is and what the cosecant function is, not if they understand the wording and what the question is asking.

To contrast this, consider question 19 from the math without calculator portion of SAT Practice Test #1:

To solve this question, the student must first draw a right triangle as follows:

Then, the student must notice that the third angle in this right triangle is actually 90° – x°, which gives:

It is easy to see now that cos (90° – x°) = 4/5, simply from the SOH-CAH-TOA acronym to remember right triangle trigonometry. This is a concept that is often taught in a Geometry course, prior to Algebra 2. However, the SAT has disguised a simpler problem as more complex, simply by the wording and mechanics of the problem. This concept should be familiar to more students, but I would expect many students that understand this concept to miss this problem.

Therefore, the SAT gives each student 38% more time per question. The questions are often trickier than their ACT counterparts.

ACT Math versus SAT Math – Most Challenging Problems

One of the other main differences between the ACT and the SAT math sections is that the ACT math section will very often include number theory problems, a concept that the SAT doesn’t touch on and is not present in most American high schoolers’ math educations. This makes number theory the most difficult problem type on the ACT math section for many students.

A great example of this is a problem that a student of mine brought in from a released ACT:

There are 90 equally spaced dots marked on a circle. Shannon chooses an integer. Beginning at a randomly chosen dot, Shannon goes around the circle clockwise and colors in every th dot. He continues going around and around the circle coloring in every th dot, counting each dot whether it is colored in or not, until he has colored in every dot. Which of the following could have been Shannon’s integer ?

1. 3

2. 4

3. 5

4. 6

5. 7

There is no formula to solve this problem and a student may have never encountered a problem like this in any math class they have taken. The point of this question is to test the student’s ability to problem solve on the fly, something that the SAT would not expect of a student.

The solution to this problem is to complete some basic casework (a standard mathematical technique, where you focus on smaller problems). Through this process the student must realize that only a number that is coprime to the number of dots will completely color all the dots. This means that the number of dots and the number n must have no common factors except for 1. Only one answer choice is coprime to 90 and that is 7. Thus, the correct answer is E.

The concept of numbers being coprime and having to complete casework is foreign to most high school students and goes far beyond the scope of the SAT.

The hardest concept tested on the SAT is the Polynomial Remainder Theorem, as demonstrated in question 29 of the math with calculator section of SAT Practice Test #1:

The correct answer to this question is D. This is basically a definitional question in which the student is asked to demonstrate that the remainder when a polynomial is divided by x – n  is the value of the polynomial at n. This concept is taught generally in the first semester of an Algebra 2 course.

Note that even though this question is seemingly straightforward based on the definition that I’ve provided, in a testing scenario the wording of the answer choices will appear foreign and the wording of the question is somewhat confusing as well.

SAT Incorporates Science Problems in the Math Sections

There has also been an attempt by the SAT to cater its offerings to compete with the ACT Science section as well.

This is shown clearly in problem 27 of the math with calculator section of SAT Practice Test #2:

Two samples of water of equal mass are heated to 60 degrees Celsius (°C). One sample is poured into an insulated container, and the other sample is poured into a non-insulated container. The samples are then left for 70 minutes to cool in a room having a temperature of 25°C. The graph above shows the temperature of each sample at 10-minute intervals. Which of the following statements correctly compares the average rates at which the temperatures of the two samples change?

1. In every 10-minute interval, the magnitude of the rate of change of temperature of the insulated sample is greater than that of the non-insulated sample.
2. In every 10-minute interval, the magnitude of the rate of change of temperature of the non-insulated sample is greater than that of the insulated sample.
3. In the intervals from 0 to 10 minutes and from 10 to 20 minutes, the rates of change of temperature of the insulated sample are of greater magnitude, whereas in the intervals from 40 to 50 minutes and from 50 to 60 minutes, the rates of change of temperature of the non-insulated sample are of greater magnitude.
4. In the intervals from 0 to 10 minutes and from 10 to 20 minutes, the rates of change of temperature of the non-insulated sample are of greater magnitude, whereas in the intervals from 40 to 50 minutes and from 50 to 60 minutes, the rates of change of temperature of the insulated sample are of greater magnitude.

The correct answer is D. This is simply asking the student to make a comparison of data trends and determine during which intervals it is changing most rapidly. The ACT would never ask a math question like this because it relegates these questions to the science section.

A concerted effort is being made by the SAT to keep up with the ACT’s offerings and it is necessary for a student to be prepared to switch between the thought processes for completing math problems and for analyzing scientific data.

Summary – ACT Math vs SAT Math

To summarize, since the ACT math section tests higher level concepts that are worded more simply and require the student to go more quickly, this would likely be most suitable to a student that has had a full year of Precalculus education, including a rigorous background in trigonometry. The SAT math section tests very basic algebraic concepts for the most part and simply tries to word it confusingly. If a student has solid fundamentals in algebraic concepts up through the first semester of an Algebra 2 course as well as some basic geometry knowledge, the SAT may be a better choice, given the student can parse through the more confusing wording.

Ultimately, each student must decide for themselves which test is right for them and should take practice tests for both the ACT and SAT before dedicating copious amounts of time to one test.

ACT Writing

Both the SAT and ACT used to come along with an optional (but strongly recommended) written component: the SAT Essay and the ACT Writing Test. However, the SAT removed the essay entirely in the Summer of 2021—now, only the ACT has an optional essay portion.

Gets detailed tips and strategies for the ACT Writing test in this separate how-to guide.

The ACT Writing Test Overview

The ACT asks students to craft an argument in the form of an argumentative essay about a particular topic. They have 40 minutes to write the essay. The test always begins with a brief description of an issue of wide relevance to modern society, like this one:

After that, the test presents a set of three possible perspectives on that issue:

Finally, the test presents students with their writing task:

This argumentative writing task is always the same; the only portion of the prompt that the ACT changes for each test is the phrase that comes after “Write a unified, coherent essay about . . .”

How the ACT Writing Test is Scored

On the ACT, two different readers give each essay a score between 1 and 6 in each of four “domains”: Ideas & Analysis, Development & Support, Organization, and Language Use & Conventions. The two readers’ scores are added together, resulting in a total score between 2 and 12 in each dimension.

In addition to individual domain scores, the ACT reports a “subject-level score” for the Writing Test as a whole, which is the rounded average of a student’s domain scores.

More importantly, though, a student’s scores for the ACT’s Writing Test is kept completely separate from their scores on the rest of the test; the essay component does not factor into the ACT’s composite score out of 36.

If you’re a strong writer who wants to showcase your skills, make sure to sign up for the ACT to take advantage of its optional essay section!

Prepare for the ACT and SAT with Piqosity for Free

The most vital differences between ACT and SAT exams are that the SAT no longer has an essay section, only the ACT has a Science section, and the ACT is much faster paced while the SAT has more complex questions. While we encourage that you take both exams, we hope that this article helped you decide which test to invest more time and effort into preparing for.

As you begin or continue your test prep journey, Piqosity is here to help! Along with our full-length, online ELA and Math courses for grades 6-11, we offer full SAT, ACT, and ISEE test prep courses, each of which includes 10 practice exams, dozens of concept lessons, personalized practice software, and more.

The best part? You can try out all of Piqosity’s features with our free community account. When you’re ready to upgrade, Piqosity’s year-long accounts start at only $89. (Secure a 10% off coupon by joining our mailing list!)

More Educational Resources by Piqosity:

• Think “I Suck at Math”? You Can Change That.
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• ACT Test Taking Strategies
• The Benefits of Retesting and Taking Multiple Practice Exams
• Are ACT Scores Correlated to College Success?