Options Are Good, but Making a Choice is Better

A recent front page article by Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post recounted what many in schools and the tutoring world have been observing for a number of years now: more and more students in the DC area are no longer taking just the SAT for college admissions. The ACT is on the march. The number of ACT test-takers area-wide has doubled in the last three years, a veritable sea change. Many students find that the ACT is simply a better test for them, and it’s great for them to have the option of a different test. They may like the structure better, they may find the content more their speed or the presentation more straightforward, or they may simply like that it isn’t the SAT. For these reasons and others, there is wisdom for pretty much anyone to look at the ACT as well as the SAT to determine which test is better.

Please note, however, that the key is to examine both and then to make a determination. You might be surprised to hear that those who choose to take both tests throughout junior year are likely doing themselves a disservice (in addition to chewing up a lot of Saturday mornings) even while they think they are increasing their chances by pursuing all options, I’ll invoke Warren Buffett who intones that “Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.” So, yes, check out both tests, but then make a decision. Three points apply:

1. The ACT and SAT are different tests. Designed by E. F. Lindquist, the ACT was introduced in 1959 as a kind of anti-SAT, designed to test acquired academic knowledge at a time when the SAT was still the Scholastic Aptitude Test, with the aim of testing reasoning ability. Much of that difference still remains. There are, of course, commonalities, but there are also differences in content, presentation and “flavor”. Shortstop and center fielder are both positions in baseball but the instincts and training required for each are meaningfully different. Young players do well to try out different positions; but by game-time, each should know and have practiced for a specific role. So too with the ACT and SAT. The instincts for one may actually work against you in the other. Apart from not making junior year about a treadmill of ACT, SAT, and APs and such, there is a logic to specializing in the test that better suits you.
2. The belief that it's better to keep one’s options open indefinitely is actually erroneous. A curious study by Harvard psychologist (and happiness researcher) Daniel Gilbert revealed that efforts to maintain choice can actually inhibit happiness. Among his findings was this: "Rule 3: Keeping your options open won't necessarily make you happier." Given the choice, people like to keep their options open. When researchers asked people whether they preferred to take home a poster they had to keep or take home one that could be exchanged later on, most people chose the latter; but it was people who made irrevocable choices early on who were happier in the end with their posters. (Taken from an article by Shankar Vedantam.)

   If you obsess about both the SAT and ACT, as you are preparing for one, you'll constantly be questioning whether you would be better off taking the other. Pick one, prepare for it, and go for it!

3. Finally, consider the no-holds-barred story of Xiang Yu, a Chinese general, as told in the piece John Tierney wrote, about Dan Ariely's book “Predictably Irrational': Keeping options open,” an entertaining look at human foibles such as the penchant for keeping too many options open. Tierney writes: "The next time you're juggling options — which friend to see, which house to buy, which career to pursue (which test to take, insertion Ned Johnson's) -- try asking yourself this question: What would Xiang Yu do?" Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops' cooking pots and burned their ships. He explained that this was to focus them on moving forward, a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. Xiang Yu was a rare exception to the norm, a warrior who conquered by being unpredictably rational, but he would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.

Now that students and parents have embraced the notion that the ACT is fully accepted by colleges and universities throughout the country, they are delighted to have options; but many don't see this as a choice to be made. 'All of the above,' when it comes to test selection, risks diluting your efforts, whipsawing you from one test to the other and back again, consuming a lot of time and effort and (likely) leading to lower scores on two tests rather than to a higher score on one.

My advice is this. Grab a practice ACT test booklet from your school counselor. Study the content and rules (such as no penalty for wrong answers which means you should leave nothing blank!), and take a practice test under timed conditions. Grade the test and compare those scores against your likely SAT results (as predicted by your PSAT score). Use a score conversion chart and consider not only which score is higher but also which test seems better suited to you. Assess which score would be easier to improve. Which felt easier? Which did you "get" better. Did you miss things you forgot or know you'll learn this year in school? Your teachers, tutor, counselor or parents can walk through the tests with you to help you analyze the tests and your performance.

Then, make a choice. Embrace that choice and go for it. Boat-burning optional!