For the past few months, my daughter has been working with Kennon on ACT Math prep and she has already seen an improvement in her score. He does a great job with explaining all types of math problems and equations and knows how to motivate his students to achieve their goals. He is very passionate about teaching his students and watching them learn and progress. Transformative Tutoring has been a great experience!
A. C.
Plain and Simple – The SAT is SIGNIFICANTLY easier
My short answer: Take the SAT and avoid the ACT.
Here’s why (full table of reasons are at the bottom of this page): The SAT and ACT are radically different math tests. After the 2024 redesign of the SAT, nearly every student will find the SAT math section to be far easier than the ACT. The Desmos graphing calculator included in the SAT is extremely powerful and (with some training) can be used to solve about half the questions on the test. I’m not happy about it, but it is the reality. In the past the SAT had a non-calculator section, so I had to be sure that students actually knew math, now I can take a student with little (or sadly no) understanding of math and get their score into the 600+ range with very few hours of tutoring. Again, I don’t like it, but it’s true. To get similar results with an ACT student might take 30 hours of tutoring. Students going for elite math scores (700+) have complained that the second half of the SAT math section can be quite hard, but the practice tests don’t really show that. Because the SAT no longer releases actual exams, it is hard to get a grasp on how hard it truly is. Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time creating additional materials to try to prepare these high scorers and although I didn’t have a student get a perfect score in the first year, I had the highest percentage of 700+ scores of any year.
Why am I telling you the truth?
I care about my students and their families. I do not want you to waste your money. I am also extremely busy, and I cannot afford to waste my time. I would much rather help more people (using less time per student on the SAT) than fewer people (by billing endless hours per family for the ACT). My calendar is generally maxed out, so I need to optimize the use of my time so that I can help as many families as possible.
The Craziest Thing I’ve Ever Heard ~ REPEATEDLY!
Students tell me all the time, “I want to re-take the ACT because my first score was so terrible, that it offers the most room for improvement.” That’s nonsense. If you are terrible at something, how much work do you think is required to become good at it? A lot!! Don’t think for a minute that starting from the bottom is the fastest way to the top. It isn’t.
If you still have doubts…
Assess Your SAT & ACT Skills First
If you have not taken either test, do a an official ACT practice test and then an official SAT practice test to see which they are more comfortable with. Do the ACT test first because it does not provide any formulas, whereas the SAT includes geometry formulas. This should help you get an unbiased assessment of how many geometry formulas you still remember. Obviously, it is your overall score that you are most interested in, so if you are doing far better on the non-math sections of the ACT, it might be worth taking on the challenge of the ACT math section. In my experience, the ACT will take significantly more studying and tutoring to raise your score significantly, and this difference has only become more drastic with the new SAT.
Side by Side Comparison
| SAT | ACT | |
| Bright Futures – 75% Scholarship | 1190 (2026) | 24 (2026) |
| Bright Futures – Full Scholarship | 1330 (2026) | 29 (2026) |
| Questions | 44 questions split into two modules | 60 questions |
| Time Allowed | 70 minutes (35 per module) | 60 minutes |
| Free Practice Tests | Seven | One |
| Type of Questions | Multiple choice, but some short answer (4 choices per question) | All multiple choice (20 easy, 20 medium, and 20 advanced) (5 choices per question) |
| Difficulty | A couple of the questions are hard, but most are simple and there’s no precalculus. The wording confuses many students, but tutoring and practice pays off. | The questions often three or more sentences, but direct. Precalculus is about 6 questions. |
| Adaptive | Yes. This simply means that if you do poorly on the first module, you get a low score, and the second module is easy (but appropriate for low scoring students). This allows the SAT to more accurately rank low scoring students because they get another 22 easy questions to assess/rank them. | No. But the test has a higher percentage of hard questions than the SAT. |
| Calculator | Desmos (extremely powerful & not to be underestimated), and/or bring your own | Bring your own |
| Summary | If you don’t know how to do something, maybe the Desmos calculator can do it for you. | It’s a race against time. Lots of questions that must be answered quickly. |
| Geometry Formulas | Provided. | Must be memorized. |
| Geometry | 15% or so | Nearly 50% |
| Probability | 2% | 10% |
| Trig. | 2% (1 question, sometimes 2) | 7% (5 questions) |
| FOIL, Parabolas | 15% (single biggest topic) | 5% |
| Algebra | 50% or more | 20% or less |
| Topics | Heavy on: Parabolas FOIL & Factoring General Algebra & Lines Systems of Equations Light on: Trig (1 question) Far fewer topics to learn. There’s only 44 questions after all! | Heavy on: Geometry Moderate on: Trigonometry/Precalc Lots of single questions on a wide variety of topics that are NOT on the SAT: Logarithms Matrices Imaginary Numbers0-2 Permutations Sequences & Series |
| Separate Science Score/Section | No | Yes |