Is the new enhanced ACT a better fit for me?

Is the new enhanced ACT a better fit for me?

by Susan Powers From the Author SAT vs. ACT

Now that our team has immersed ourselves in all things enhanced ACT (taken the October ACT, gotten our scores back to calibrate our experiences, become an official ACT affiliate, and deeply analyzed all 33 affiliate test forms and all 6 enhanced ACT forms), we’re VERY excited about the potential for students on the ACT.

In particular, we feel that three groups of students will likely benefit from taking the ACT: students with extended time, students scoring 1000 or below on the PSAT/SAT, students wanting a perfect or nearly perfect score.

Students with extended time: It has always been true that students with extended time have leaned toward the ACT but with the new enhanced ACT and its more relaxed standard timing (compared to the old version), extended time students are very likely to find the ACT a better fit, both at the mock baseline moment but also in terms of how much prep can improve their scores.  The ACT is so much more straightforward, and its reading level is so much lower than the SAT that once the timing constraint is eased, the ACT is almost always a better fit.

Students scoring below 1000 on PSAT/SAT: When students are scoring in this range, they frequently have content gaps.  Because the SAT is so verbal heavy (even the math section is made difficult not by the math tested but by the way questions are phrased) and because underlying verbal skills (paraphrasing sentences or paragraphs and vocabulary core knowledge) take a long time and a lot of effort to improve, students in this score range will often find that they can improve much further on the ACT which doesn’t present those obstacles.

Students looking for a perfect or nearly perfect score: While a student can only miss zero to one question on the SAT to get a perfect score, they can miss significantly more on the ACT and still get a perfect score.  Now that the ACT has significantly fewer questions, the advantage is even bigger.  For example, on Form J08 (the October 2025 test), a student could have missed 4 questions and still gotten a composite score of 36.  At the top end of the scale, the fact of being a human who is bound to make a mistake somewhere looms much larger.

Want to see how you would do on the ACT? We can help! Contact us today!

Our Goal 1600 Class

Our Goal 1600 Class

by James Bealer Classes

Taking the SAT can be a real challenge. Trying to get a top score on the SAT is an even bigger challenge. Students aiming for these near-perfect scores have unique needs.

Our Goal 1600 class is specifically designed for students aiming for National Merit Semifinalist and top percentile SAT scores. This class goes quickly through the regular content and focuses then on strategy and practice for the hard questions. In order to help ensure students are in a class that best suits them, students must meet a minimum SAT score (or equivalent PSAT score) of 1300 to be admitted to the class.

According to Susan Powers: “Students in Texas are in an extremely competitive arena.  National Merit Semifinalists can only miss one or two questions per section of the test.” This means that error prevention is a main focus of the class, with strategies notably different from basic SAT strategies.  “When creating this class, I focused on what this specific group of students needs because this type of class isn’t available elsewhere in The Woodlands.”