Are you stressed over the decision regarding which test to take to get into college? Are you laboring over the question: “ACT or SAT?”

If you are a student who has decided on the ACT, then this is for you.

As students proceed into their junior or senior year of high school, they have a big weight on their shoulders regarding which test to take in order to get into a college. Although colleges once accepted only the SAT, all colleges now accept the ACT.

The ACT, an abbreviation for American College Testing, is a national college admissions examination that consists of the following subject area tests: English, math, reading, and an optional writing section. ACT results are accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. Actual testing time is 2 hours and 55 minutes (plus 30 minutes if you are taking the ACT Writing section). The ACT score, which ranges from 19 to 25, is based on the number of correct answers, with no penalty for guessing, but with a penalty for wrong answers. The ACT also has an Interest Inventory, which allows students to evaluate their interests in various career options, though this section is obviously unscored.

The SAT is the Statistical Aptitude Test and has up to five sections: English, mathematics, reading, science, and a mandatory writing section. The SAT penalizes you for wrong answers, so guessing is discouraged. The ACT has four sections, which includes English, reading, math, and an optional writing section.

According to College Board in 2013, The ACT has pulled ahead of the SAT for the first time ever, with 1,666,017 students taking the ACT, while 1,664,479 took the SAT. According to College Board, “1.5% take the ACT, but only 15% get a perfect score, while the SAT had 38% who took it, but 33% got a perfect score.

The SAT and the ACT are like the Super Bowl of standardized tests. The SAT and ACT have their similarities, but they are surprisingly different in a few general ways, such as Timing, Sections, and the optional writing sections. Probably the biggest difference people notice is that the ACT, also has a science section, but the SAT doesn’t.  Also, the questions are more math-based, asking test takers to interpret a chart, graph, or other information. Another difference is that the SAT has sentence completions as part of its vocabulary questions, while the ACT does not.  Both tests use the multiple-choice format for all questions except for the essay.  The essay is optional on the ACT, but most people choose to complete it.  The only difference is that the SAT gives you 5 choices for each question, and the ACT gives you 4. Both tests take four hours to complete, although they are divided up differently. The ACT is 3 hours and 25 minutes, while the SAT is 3 hours and 45 minutes.

`   All schools accept either test, so there’s no need to worry that your dream college prefers one test over the other.  That being said, you might have better opportunities available to you, depending on each test’s popularity in your part of the country.  Traditionally, students on the West and East Coasts tend to take the SAT, and students from the Midwest tend to take the ACT, but there is no rule.

I will say, though, that I like the ACT better. You would expect that the SAT would have better validity, but it doesn’t, according to data gathered by Dartmouth College, One of the admissions officers explained that students who do well on the ACT will continue to do well in college because they will be able to store and apply information better, and the admissions officer also stated that it found little correlation between SAT scores and student performance at Dartmouth. The ACT is also more straightforward. If you are a person who likes to take shorter tests and not wait too long on one section, then the ACT is for you!