Until recently, the ACT was required by colleges in the Midwest, while the SAT was the test of choice for schools in the Northeast and on both coasts. Most schools now accept both. Schools may still require the SAT Subject Tests even with the ACT.

Most students generally do about the same on the ACT as they do on the SAT. Depending on your particular strengths and weaknesses, it is possible to perform better on one test than the other. Here is information to help you decide whether you should consider taking one test over the other.

If you have both SAT and ACT scores and aren't sure which score is better, the following table developed by ACT and The College Board can help. Use it to compare scores on the SAT Reasoning Test with the composite scores on the ACT, and vice versa. Both tables are based on scores from students who took both tests between September 2004 (for the ACT) or March 2005 (for the SAT) and June 2006. Students in the sample represent the first high school graduating cohort since the introduction of the SAT with Writing and the optional Writing section on the ACT. The sample includes students who completed both tests and were matched across ACT and SAT files.

It is important to note that a student that scores well on the ACT is not guaranteed to have similar success on the SAT and vice versa. For example, say a student earns an ACT composite score of 31; colleges will view this score as being in the same range of a 2070 on the SAT. But it does not mean the student will actually earn that score on the SAT. This relationship is merely a way of looking at the competitive equivalent of the two tests, and is not meant to be a predictor of student performance.