A Useful Concordance Table for the SAT and ACT
Once upon a time, the makers of the SAT and ACT published a table that showed how scores from one test compared to scores from the other test. They called this a Concordance Table, and it was beloved throughout the land. Students would be able to take both tests and then compare their scores to learn which one they were naturally stronger at taking.
Unfortunately, in 2005 the SAT screwed it all up by adding a new section (Writing) and reworking some parts of the Math and Verbal sections. While recent studies have proved that the new sections didn't really change anything of importance, the previous Concordance Table was rendered out of date. Everyone was very sad and students no longer could accurately compare scores from both exams without guesswork.
This week, the ACT and SAT released a new Concordance Table in an attempt to make students happy again. Guess what? It's not the same kind of table...and very few people are going to be happy with it.
The new tables no longer contain a straight score to score comparison. Now they show you two distinct tables:
- The SAT Critical Reading + Math vs the Whole ACT
- The SAT Writing vs The ACT English + Writing
Le Sigh. As my loyal readers know, I'm not a fan of the College Board or the ACT. They both have a unique way of providing data that is not just useless, but frustrating. This is a classic example. Todd Johnson does a decent job explaining what the College Board has provided, but I think these tables are really just a waste of time.
Students should not be comparing the Whole ACT against just the SAT Math and Reading; it's not an accurate picture. It's also silly to have a separate table to examine how well students did on the Writing section of the SAT alone. Finally, nobody is really ever clear on how to calculate the ACT English + Writing anyway, so understanding that score is really difficult for most students and isn't something they want or need to compare.
A Concordance table needs to provide test takers with a clear picture of which test they did better on, not a confusing algorithm that makes the test seem important.
So, for the good of students everywhere, I submit to you a "Simple ACT/SAT Concordance Table." We use this with our students and it's proven to be very effective at helping them understand their score quickly and easily. It's based on the percentiles provided by College Board and ACT Inc and will help students to understand not just which test they scored better on, but also how college admissions officers will view their score...