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Do you have to study differently for the ACT....


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Or can SAT prep cover the ACT???? The reason is my dd's 2nd attempt on improving her SATs will be in October. Her first ACT will be in September (I think). She is also prepping for SAT IIs. I can't see her picking up another prep book (for ACT) and adding that to her already full schedule.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

Whitney

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My son took the ACT and one of the main differences that I remember was that there is a science component to the ACT. There are some other differences but I just remember that one. My son used one of the ACT study guides when he was preparing.

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Humm...I see what you're saying. I'm not sure because SAT is a measure of aptitude and ACT is more of a measure of achievement. How the guides approach a review and how that could skew the results I'm not really sure. Hopefully someone else might know...sorry. :(

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Whitney,

 

I think she'll be fine with SAT prep for most of the ACT. However, the science section on the ACT is quite different, so she should definitely do some practice tests for that. I'd also suggest having her work through a few tests from the Real ACT book the week or two before the exam just so she's confident about the format of the exam.

 

One other very important difference is that there is no guessing penalty on the ACT, so she should answer every question.

 

Best wishes to both of you in this very stressful time. I remember my older son's junior year and all the associated testing very well, and it wasn't pretty.

 

Brenda

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Others have mentioned the science difference. The science section is not hard, but it is very difficult to get it done. There are some Utube videos of a science teacher prepping kids for the ACT by working through strategy. The year my ds's watched those, their ACT science scores rose noticeably. You can search ACT science prep

 

The math on the ACT is more advanced than that on the SAT. I believe the SAT covers only Algebra I and Geometry. The ACT goes into some (not a lot, but some) trig. So ACT math prep might be important.

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Yes, the ACT math has harder math on it but overall I think it is easier since there are no trick questions. THe reading is different too. The ACR does not have any stand alone vocabulary, just vocabulary in reading or writing. The prompts for ACT writing are very different too. They are all very down to earth proposals about things like school uniforms, later start times for school, year round school, etc.

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and I truly do not know much, but I have heard that the ACT essay has a different format, that the student is supposed to include reasonable objections to their thesis and rebut those.

 

I am pretty unclear on what is precisely required, but if your student is doing the writing portion, it would probably be beneficial to know the format requirements and practice them.

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