What is the difference between the ACT and SAT?

Key takeaways

• The ACT and SAT, entrance exams for college, both test high school students on reading comprehension, math skills, and problem solving.
• The SAT is longer than the ACT but it has fewer questions, providing students with more time per question.
• The ACT focuses more on longer reading passages and geometry, while the SAT has evidence-based reading questions and free-response math problems.

The ACT and SAT are two standardized tests accepted by many colleges and universities with college applications. While they’re similar, they have key differences. Taking the right exam for you can lead to a high score and increase your chances of a coveted acceptance letter from your dream school. Below, we’ve highlighted the differences between the ACT and SAT, from test formats to time per question, so you can start studying right away.

What is the SAT?

The SAT is a standardized test administered by the College Board for high school students that many colleges and universities use to help make their admission decisions. The entire test has 98 questions and takes 2 hours and 24 minutes, including a 10-minute break between these two sections:

• Reading and Writing: Two 32-minute modules with a total of 54 questions/tasks that test your reading comprehension, reasoning skills, expression of ideas, grammar, and more.
• Math: The math section has two 35-minute modules and 44 questions/tasks. It covers algebra, advanced math, problem solving, data analysis, geometry, and trigonometry.

The College Board scores each SAT section between 200 and 800 points. Your results are added on each section to arrive at your SAT Composite score, which is between 400 and 1600.

What is the ACT?

Like the SAT, the ACT is a standardized test used by many colleges and universities for admission decisions. Administered by ACT.org, the exam has three required sections and two optional portions:

• English: The required English section has 50 questions over 35 minutes on grammar, usage, and rhetorical skills.
• Math: With 45 questions, the Math portion takes 50 minutes covering pre-algebra, algebra, statistics, modeling, geometry, and more. It’s a required part of the ACT.
• Reading: 36 questions test your reading comprehension, ability to draw conclusions and infer information, and reasoning skills over 40 minutes in this required section.
• Science: The Science section became optional in 2024. Students have 40 minutes to answer 40 questions on data interpretation, reasoning, understanding experiments, and evaluating scientific arguments.
• Writing: Introduced in 2005, the Writing section has always been optional. Students have 40 minutes to write an essay on the provided prompt. ACT.org scores the essay on ideas, analysis, development, support, organization, language use, and conventions.

The required portion of the ACT takes 2 hours and 15 minutes with a 10-minute break after the second section. If you take all five sections, the entire test lasts 3 hours and 40 minutes with one 10-minute break and one 5-minute break.

English, Math, Reading, and Science sections have multiple choice questions, scored between 1 and 36. The average of your English, Math, and Reading results gives you your ACT Composite score. The Writing test is scored between 2 and 12.

What is the difference between the ACT and SAT?

While both the ACT and SAT are entrance exams, they have key differences that can influence your decision on which to take. This table shows a quick comparison between the tests, and we dove more into how the tests compare below.

English, Reading, and Writing

Some find the SAT easier due to the fact that the passages are broken up, with each question referring to its own passage. However, the SAT also has a few tricky evidence-based reading questions, which require you to answer a question and then identify which part of the provided passage best supports your answer.

Math

Both standardized tests focus heavily on algebra, but there are key differences that could influence you to choose one test over the other:

Optional sections

The SAT discontinued its optional Writing portion and SAT Subject Tests in 2021. The ACT still offers their Writing section where you need to identify and defend your opinion on the provided prompt in an essay format.

The ACT also has a Science section, which the ACT.org made optional in 2024. Some schools require this test from STEM students.

Time per question

The SAT is slightly longer than the required sections of the ACT, and you tend to have more time per question on average for the SAT than the ACT. This table highlights the differences in seconds per question for each section of the two tests:

ACT or SAT? Which test to take

Choosing the right test for you could have a major impact on your college admissions chances. Here are some tips to pick between the SAT or ACT.

• Review state requirements. Many states work with ACT.org or the College Board to offer free testing to some or all high school juniors. Some require you to take the ACT or SAT as part of your high school graduation. You may want to stick to your state’s required exam to avoid having to study for both tests.
• Consider your strengths (and weaknesses): Are you better at trigonometry than statistics? Do you find evidence-based reading questions easier than finding information in longer passages? You could find your strengths and weaknesses point you to one test.
• Take practice tests. Take a practice test of each exam and review your results. You could find you do significantly better on one than the other, which gives you a better foundation to work from.

Once you know which test is right for you, it’s time to register, study, take practice exams, and set goals. Don’t know what to aim for? Taking a look at your dream school’s average accepted SAT and ACT scores help you increase your chances of receiving an acceptance letter. Use College Raptor’s College Match to start identifying colleges that meet your needs and wants and get on track for getting the best ACT/SAT score you can.