You and the SAT were a match made in heaven…until you weren’t. Now, you’ve realized that the ACT is actually likelier to get you to the target score you need for your dream college. But you’ve been studying for a different test. So HOW do you make a smooth (and quick) transition from Digital SAT to ACT?
That’s what today’s post is all about: exactly which new question types and strategies you need to master if you’re swapping out the SAT for the ACT.
I’m Kristina, a standardized testing expert who’s been working with students for 15+ years to get them into the world’s toughest schools. I’ve helped many clients switch efficiently from the SAT to the ACT, and I wrote today’s post so that you can do the same.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Video version of this article
2. How to know whether you should switch tests
3. New content to learn if you’re switching from the SAT to the ACT
A. English
i. Grammar
ii. Redundancy
iii. Add/Delete
iv. Writer's Purpose
vi. Goals
vii. Primarily Lose
B. Math
i. Algebra II
ii. Statistics and Probability
iii. Functions
iv. Trigonometry
v. Geometry
vi. Algebra
vii. Miscellaneous topics
C. Reading
D. Science
4. Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
How to decide if you should switch tests
Before we jump into how to make this transition, let’s be sure that it’s wise for you to make that transition in the first place.
Many students go through a rough patch with their standardized test of choice—it’s a hard, months- or years-long project for almost everyone, and frustration is normal!
But does that necessarily mean your test choice is to blame? Maybe you should actually stick to the same exam, but change up your study strategy, take a really good prep course, or hire a tutor. Hastily hitting the “escape” button on the SAT can take weeks or months of your time...only to result in a roughly equivalent score on your new test.
This post walks you through how to figure out if you should change from the SAT to the ACT.
Give it a skim, then hop back over to this article to find out how you’re going to pivot to the ACT with minimal wasted time.
English questions on the ACT
The ACT has three to four sections: English, Math, Reading, and (optionally) Science. We’ll begin with English.
Grammar
If you have recently switched to team ACT after batting for the SAT, I first have some good news: grammar remains consistent between the two tests. So if you learned all the grammar you needed to know for the SAT, you don’t have any new grammar to master.
If you want a rundown of all of that grammar in one place, my ACT grammar cram plan has got you covered.
However, unlike grammar, which seamlessly translates between the tests, there is an umbrella category of ACT English question you won’t have encountered on the SAT: Rhetorical Strategy questions. These include the following subtopics.
Redundancy
On the Digital SAT, there might have been a question or two that loosely involved making a text more concise, but the ACT will directly test that ability across several questions. You’ll be tasked with 1) deciding whether something is redundant, i.e., if it repeats information found elsewhere in that sentence, paragraph, or passage, and with 2) cutting it out if it IS redundant.
If you want a no-frills guide to acing this question type, my ACT Grammar Cram Plan gives you the best hacks for these Qs!
Add/Delete
The next thing that you won’t have seen on the SAT but that is all over the ACT are what I call Add/Delete questions.
You’ll be given a sentence and told that the author is thinking about adding a given sentence in a certain spot. Should they or shouldn't they add that sentence? Or your task might take the opposite form: the author is considering deleting the underlined text. Should the author do that or not? And for what reason?
Fortunately, I’ve written a whole article (and YouTube video!) that teaches you the best strategy for answering this genre of question.
Writer's Purpose
The next undiscovered ACT territory for former SAT-takers is the Writer's Purpose question.
These questions will ask you something along the lines of: If the writer's purpose was to describe how to train a dog, did this text accomplish that goal?
Logical Order
Next up are Logical Order questions. This type of question might ask you to:
Figure out where a certain sentence should go in the larger order of a paragraph
Figure out where a paragraph should go in a longer passage
Rearrange the order of a sentence or paragraph.
So learn how to do that! (Again, my Cram Plan is a great short-cut in that quest.)
Goal
The ACT will also bring you face-to-face with something that I lovingly call the Goal question. These are all over the ACT. Now, the test is not going to come out and call it a Goal question—but there’s a tell.
These types of question always ask you something super specific. For instance: “Which of the following most vividly describes the narrator's walk through the jungle?”
These sort of questions are a little bit like playing a game of Simon Says. Your job is simply to accomplish the specific goal that the question asked you to.
Primarily Lose
And finally, the last of the Rhetorical Strategy questions that you will need to know for the ACT's English section (but NOT for the Digital SAT's Reading and Writing section) is what I call a Primarily Lose question. The basic shape is: If the writer were to delete the following sentence, clause, or phrase, what would the passage primarily lose?
It's just a roundabout way of asking, “Well, what did that sentence/clause/phrase give the reader? What information did it provide?”
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with all of these Rhetorical Strategy question types, you'll be golden for the ACT's English section.
What to Study for the ACT Math that Isn't on the SAT
Now let's move on to the ACT's Math section.
Happily, there is a lot of overlap between the Digital SAT and ACT in this dimension, especially when it comes to Math fundamentals…but there are going to be many MORE topics on the ACT's Math section.
Not all of them will show up on every test, but if you want a high score, you will need to familiarize yourself with all of them so that you're prepared for whichever questions they throw at you.
Algebra II
In terms of the territory typically covered by Algebra II, the NEW topics you'll need to know and familiarize yourself with for the ACT are:
Logarithms (e.g. log base 2 of 8)
Direct and indirect variation
These are not tested by the SAT, but occasionally appear on the ACT.
Statistics and Probability
Again, many of the topics tested by the ACT in this subcategory will not be a surprise to you, because you’ll already have prepped them for the SAT. But a few things you will need to add to your toolkit are:
Permutations
Combinations
Sets (Think of a set as a Venn diagram: X number of people took Spanish. Y number of people take Band. Some take both. Some take neither. Then you need to do some calculations based on those differing sets of numbers.)
Functions
As far as functions go, here are the ACT-only topics to learn:
Is this relation even a function or not?
Find an inverse function, or f-1(x).
Find the asymptote. (This is a more niche topic, but it does show up occasionally. So you should know it if you're gunning for a 35 or 36.)
Trigonometry
Trigonometry is an area that the ACT tests way more than the SAT does. In fact, the SAT barely tests Trig at all, and the few questions it DOES ask in that domain tend to concentrate around a small number of subtopics.
So here’s what you’ll need to add to your brain’s catalogue as you pivot from SAT to ACT:
Reciprocal Trig ratios like secant, cosecant, and cotangent.
Graphing Trig functions (e.g. What does the sine, cosine, or tangent graph look like? What is the amplitude of that graph? What is the frequency? etc.)
Law of Sines and Law of Cosines so that you can solve a non-right triangle.
Geometry
When it comes to two- and three-dimensional geometry, the same concepts appear on both tests.
algebra
Same as above! The vast majority of the Algebra on the SAT translates easily to the ACT.
Miscellaneous topics
Now we arrive at an assorted set of non-SAT subtopics that don't show up on every math section of every ACT—but a FEW will appear on every test, and you should know them all if you're aiming for a top score.
Here they are:
Complex numbers (i.e. dealing with i. Maybe you encountered an equation that included i on the SAT, but the ACT goes much more in-depth with such questions.)
Logic (if X statement is true, what is the only other statement that must also be true? To do well here, you’ll need to master something called the contrapositive.)
Series (on the SAT, you might have come across an arithmetic sequence or two; on the ACT, you'll encounter more arithmetic and geometric sequences, and also series, which is when you add up the terms in said sequence.)
Vectors
Matrices (you might be asked to multiply them or add them; you might be asked what the determinant is; you might be asked what the dimensions of the resulting matrix are.)
The Binomial Theorem (a rare appearance, but not unheard of.)
Conic sections (the Digital SAT tests your knowledge of circles on the coordinate plane, how to graph it, and what the equation is and how to solve it. On the ACT, you'll get circles, but you might ALSO get an ellipse or even a hyperbola.)
Polar coordinates
These items are all covered thoroughly in my ACT Math Cram Plan, btw, if you’re looking for a one-stop study guide.
How Does the ACT Reading Differ from the SAT?
At this point, you might see that we’re reaching the end of this blog post and exclaim: “But there are two more sections on the ACT that you haven’t covered yet!” And, yes. There are. However, the new skills you’ll need to acquire there are more straightforward than those in Writing and Math, if not easier per se.
The question TYPES—those that test your grasp of a passage’s main idea, or ask about the details of two separate passages and how they compare and contrast, or what a word means in the context of a passage—will all basically translate from the SAT.
But for the ACT Reading section, there is a new skill you’ll need to acquire: speed. Unlike on the SAT, you’ll now have long passages with nine questions each on the SAT.
So, you need to acquire a general, swift reading strategy so that you can get through the four passages with enough time without sacrificing accuracy.
Study Tips for the ACT Science
Lastly, the ACT offers you the option of being tested on a topic that the SAT doesn’t cover at all: Science.
But don’t despair: because even though you've never encountered a Science section before, many of the skills and content that you got comfortable with for the SAT's Math section—all of those different charts, graphs, and tables, and the process of interpreting data—will apply directly to the ACT Science section.
Now, you DO still need to learn from scratch how the science section is structured overall; what type of passages there are; and how many questions are in each.
You’ll also want to master specific strategies for Science questions. I’ve written free guides explaining some of the key methods for approaching these Qs, like the Castle Method (video version here). I also share ALL of the strategies you’ll need in my Ultimate ACT Science Guide course.
Conclusion
So that, my intrepid studiers, was ALL of the question types, strategies, and content that you're going to need to learn and practice if you are changing lanes from the Digital SAT to the ACT.
Some of you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by that list, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (i.e. with your reading this post, which you’ve already done—check!).
That being said, if a custom study plan and weekly accountability would help ground you, I offer those in my one-on-one tutoring sessions.
