Can someone share their knowledge about the ACT versus the SAT? Here's what happened:
DS took the ACT in mid-grade 6 when he was 11, and had a
26 composite, 84%ile of high schoolers, 96%ile of Numats 6th-graders.
He took it again this year as a HS freshman, had a
34 composite, 99%ile of high schoolers and Numats freshmen.
So that's all fine. He also just took the SAT, and had a
1310 combined math/critical reading, 89%ile of high schoolers and 87%ile of Numats freshmen.
He thought that the SAT was so easy, but this score does not reflect that! He typically scores in the 99%ile on CoGat and our state assessments and 94-99%ile on the NWEA MAP, was subject-accelerated to 4th-grade math as a 1st grader, and was in our district replacement LA and Math classes through 8th grade. While chronologically a freshman, he is taking mostly soph honors classes.
It seems that this score difference is far more than the "different day" score difference one might see, and certainly doesn't jibe with act/sat conversion charts. Are the two tests that different, that a highly abstract thinker would not score as high? Or are they scored so differently? Or is the SAT more high school curriculum based than the ACT?
To be clear, I'm not asking how he can raise his score, he did not "prep" for any of the tests beyond taking one sample test each, spread out over a few weekends. In fact, before the SAT he practiced only 2 sample sections. I just wonder what might be behind this great variance.
Does anyone have experience with such SAT/ACT score comparisons?
