When is it a good idea to jump ship from the Digital SAT to the ACT (or from the ACT to the SAT)….and when is it a BAD idea that will hurt your college chances?
This is a question raised by many of the clients who seek my elite SAT and ACT tutoring services (before I help them ace their next sitting of the test, that is!). And maybe you can relate.
Let’s say you’ve recently gotten a low score or two on your first test of choice. The numbers you’re hitting are far from the target score you need in order to open the doors to your dream schools.
This test just doesn’t seem to be working for you. So isn’t the easiest thing to simply…move on to the other test? Surely your numbers will be better (and the grass will be greener) on the other side.
Sure, switching might be the psychologically easiest thing to do in the short term—but it’s not always the best thing for your applications, in the long term. Today’s post is going to walk you through exactly how to make the call.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1) Video version of this article
2) How to figure out whether you should change tests…
a) …if you haven’t taken both diagnostic tests.
i) When you then score better on the diagnostic test than on the test you've been studying for.
ii) When you then score worse on the diagnostic test than on the test you've been studying for.
b) …if you HAVE taken both diagnostic tests.
i) When you then score better on the diagnostic test than on the test you've been studying for.
ii) When you then score worse on the diagnostic test than on the test you've been studying for.
iii) When you then score about the same on the diagnostic test as you’ve been scoring on the more familiar test.
3) Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
How to Know If You Should Change Tests
First and foremost, there’s one very important (but straightforward) question you’ve got to answer before I can help you determine how to proceed here:
Before you started studying for and taking a particular standardized test, did you take diagnostic tests of both the SAT and the ACT and compare your two scores (or have a professional like myself compare them for you)?
If you didn’t take diagnostic SAT and ACT tests early on and compare those numbers, proceed to the next section.
If you did do so, please skip ahead to this section below. You’ll have a slightly different decision-making process.
Want to swap tests...but haven't taken a diagnostic version of the other test?
If you have NOT yet taken a diagnostic version of both tests, whether you’re a Digital SAT or ACT person, you're going to stop whatever you're doing and immediately:
1) Take a diagnostic version of the test you haven’t prepped and sat for.
So if you’ve been sitting for the ACT, you’re going to go take an SAT diagnostic test right away. And on the flip side, if you’ve been working on the SAT, you’re going to pause and take an ACT diagnostic test right away. Please take these tests in proper conditions that mimic those of a real test (the top of this other post explains what that looks like)!
2) Once you’ve taken that diagnostic test, you are going to take a look at this SAT and ACT concordance tool that the test-makers created. (Or view it in PDF form here.)
This resource compares the scores from both tests so you can understand what they mean in comparison to each other.
3) Once you’ve compared your ACT and SAT scores (one or both of which may be diagnostic), only one of three things can happen.
Below, I’ll explain what you should do if faced with each of these outcomes:
A) You score better on the diagnostic test than on the test you’ve been studying for.
B) You score lower on the diagnostic test than on the test you’ve been studying for.
A) You score noticeably better on the diagnostic test than on the test you've been studying for.
This is actually the best case scenario! Why? Well, because you’ve essentially just discovered that you would be gaining points just by switching tests. In that case, your path is clear: yes, you should switch from the SAT to the ACT or from the ACT to the SAT.
B) You score worse on the diagnostic test than on the test you were studying for.
This means that, believe it or not, you are already prepping for and taking the right test for you. In that case, your next steps are to find a more efficient study strategy, figure out exactly which topics and concepts you need to learn to fill in those gaps, and/or hire a tutor. Then, study away—because you're already on the right track in terms of which test will best play to your strengths.
C) You score about the same on the diagnostic test as you've been scoring on your old test.
Maybe the numbers aren’t exactly equivalent, but they’re really close. In that case, you've got two options.
i) You can consult a professional. These are exactly the kinds of situations that we’re here for. When I meet with a new client and their family for an Ace the Test Game Plan, we compare your two sets of test results. But we're not just comparing the numbers. I'm looking at: which type of questions did you miss on the ACT? And which type of questions did you miss on the SAT? Which missed problems are learnable/teachable, and which ones are not? How many points could you realistically pick up on the ACT if that were the test you stuck with? And how many points could you realistically gain from studying if you were to go with the SAT instead?
ii) Or let's say you don't have the budget or time to go with a pro. If the scores are basically even, you should ask yourself: now that I've officially tried both, did I like one test more than the other? That could make the decision for you.
Are you taking the wrong test? Deciding...when you've taken diagnostics of both
This is the circumstance where you did start your test prep off in the recommended way—by taking a diagnostic or real test of both the SAT and the ACT before you even started studying.
Now that you’ve gotten a dissatisfying score(s) on the test you initially chose, is it time to switch?
The answer is: sometimes. To figure that out if you do fall into that category where switching will be most advantageous to your college applications, you’re going to ask yourself these three questions:
1) Have you been actively studying for the test that you initially chose for at least six months? By “actively,” I mean prepping consistently every week (with a tutor, in a class, or on your own), learning SAT or ACT strategies and doing practice sets.
2) Have you sat for at least three different test attempts of that first test? I mean official tests, here, not diagnostic.
3) Have you either seen very little or no score improvement since your first sitting (or maybe your score has even gotten worse)? “Very little” improvement means that you’ve gone up by about one point on the ACT or 10-20 points on the SAT. And even with that modicum of improvement, you’re still far from what your target score needs to be to get a foot in the door to your top-pick colleges.
If you can say “yes” to all three of those questions, the truth is that you’ve probably learned all of the grammar, math, reading, and/or science strategies that there are to learn.
And so you are going to drop what you're doing and take a second diagnostic test of the test you haven’t been sitting for. (Note that it should NOT be the same exact diagnostic test you took before!) Do not study for it. Just take it—timed, under realistic testing conditions.
Then, use this concordance calculator or table to compare your scores from the two tests.
Only one of three things can happen now. I’ll describe below what to do for each of these outcomes:
A) You score better on the new diagnostic test than on the test you’re used to.
B) You score lower on the new diagnostic test than on the test you’re used to.
C) You score about the same on the new diagnostic test as you’ve been scoring on the test you’re used to.
A) You score better on the diagnostic test than on the test you've taken three times or more.
So even though you’ve been plugging away diligently at your SAT prep, you take a second ACT diagnostic test and, according to the concordance table that compares the two tests, the ACT score is significantly higher! (Or vice versa: if you’ve been prepping hard for the ACT, maybe you’ve just taken a diagnostic SAT and discovered that your SAT score is stronger.)
Side note: if this is the situation you find yourself in, please don’t fret that the time you put towards studying for that first test was a waste. You were learning grammar and math; you were gaining the stamina it takes to sit down and concentrate over the course of an entire standardized test. These things will help you with your new test!
And here’s what you’re going to do next: you are going to register for the very next test sitting for that second, new test—but do not cancel any current test sittings you have on the books for your old test.
In other words, if you're an ACT person and your diagnostic test success just gave you the green light to switch to the SAT, sign up for the next SAT test sitting available. But if you already have an ACT on the books, don't cancel it. Take that one as well.
B) You score worse on the diagnostic test than on the test you've taken three times or more.
What if you take a practice test for the new test…and your score is LOWER than the one you’ve already taken thrice (or more)? For example, you’ve been taking the ACT again and again, and you try out a practice SAT…and the concordance table tells you that the SAT score is a downgrade from what you’ve been getting on the ACT?
Well, guess what? That's actually great news, because this means you were on the right track to begin with and you should stick with the ACT (or whichever test you’ve been taking for months).
And now that you KNOW you’re taking the test that’s most advantageous to you, in particular, you can stop obsessing about whether you should switch tests and keep hitting those books!
C) You score about the same on the diagnostic test as on the test you've taken three times or more.
What happens if the results of your experiment are….somewhere in between? You’ve been taking the SAT all along, you pause to take a second ACT diagnostic test, and…the concordance table informs you that the two numbers are comparable (if not exactly identical, then very close).
In this scenario, I actually would sign up for the new test, but also keep any current test settings of the test you've been prepping towards for the past six plus months.
Why? Well, the mere fact that someone is spending so much time and energy on one test and putting pressure on themselves (and/or getting pressure from their parents) to score high can mean that they’ve accumulated a lot of anxious feelings around that particular test. And believe me, test anxiety can be a real score-sinker (though there are concrete ways to combat it).
That’s where your new test comes in. I’ve found with my students that sometimes the mere fact that they haven’t been stressing out about Test 2 for months on end…is enough for them to get a surprisingly high score on Test 2 when they actually sit down in the testing center to take it. You have way less built-up bad juju towards that fresh test, so your head is calm, clear, and capable of showing off what you can really do.
Conclusion
And that, dear reader, is how you determine once and for all whether you should switch from the SAT to the ACT or from the ACT to the SAT.
If you’d like my personal advice on your case—a definitive answer as to which test will better suit your strengths—you can also work with me directly.
