AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2007 > August > 20
Monday, August 20, 2007
ACT Vs. SAT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I don’t remember ever hearing about the ACT college entrance exam until I was well out of Liberty High School. In Maryland, the SAT was the bane and burden of every aspiring college student, including me.
I think I first heard of the ACT when I was working in San Antonio. I remember a guidance counselor at a prestigious private school there telling me that she advised her students to take both of the standardized exams.
That’s right, both.
Students who didn’t score well on the SAT, she said, often did much better on the ACT, which is more closely aligned with what students are learning in school.
I wonder if that strategy is catching on. According to the latest annual report from the test’s maker, more Georgians than ever are taking the ACT. In the graduating class of 2007, more than 29,400 kids took the ACT’s English, math, reading, science and writing tests — up about 4,400 students or 17.6 percent from the class of 2006.
Still, that group makes up only about a third of the total college test-taking population here. So, in the Peach State, at least, the SAT is still king.
