PrepScholar SAT Subscores vs ACT Subscores - What They Are and How to Compare Them

Sep 14, 2026

The ebook explains what SAT and ACT subscores are and how they provide more granular insight into students’ strengths and weaknesses. It clarifies two major types of subscores—section-level reporting categories and cross-test scores—then evaluates which subscores can meaningfully be compared across the two exams. Guidance covers practical relationships between essay, writing/English, math, reading, and science scores, helping students decide whether taking both tests is worthwhile.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Intro

What Are SAT/ACT Subscores?

Can You Compare Subscores?

Section-Level Subscores

Cross-Test Scores

Other Subscores

Do Subscores Succeed?

And Now What?

PrepScholar SAT Subscores vs . ACT Subscores What They Are and How to Compare Them By Laura Staffaroni [www. .com](www. .com) TABLE OF CONTENTS: Intro......................................................3 1: What Are SAT/ACT Subscores?.............4 2: Can You Compare Subscores?..............6 3: Section-Level Subscores.......................9 4: Cross-Test Scores...............................23 5: Other Subscores................................26 6: Do Subscores Succeed?......................29 7: And Now What?.................................32 Copyright © 2016 by PrepScholar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This book may be electronically forwarded verbaEm by anyone at no charge as long as this book is sEll available at no charge on the site of [www.prepscholar.com](www.prepscholar.com) and no modiﬁcaEons have been made to the original. INTRO SAT Subscores vs . ACT Subscores Both the SAT and ACT subscores provide students with detailed information about their weaknesses and strengthsin categories more specific than Reading, Writing, Math, and Essay-writing (SAT) or English, Reading, Math, Science, and Writing (ACT) . Understanding the implications of that detailed information, however, can be difficult, due to the sheer number of scores . In this ebook, we'll discuss how subscores can be useful to students and whether or not subscores on one test can indicate how a student would do on the other. 3 1: What Are SAT/ACT Subscores? > Key Point: Subscores on the SAT and ACT give students more information about their strengths and weaknesses in specific areas . In addition to total scores out of 36 and 1600 and section scores out of 36 and 800 (or out of 40 for individual"test scores" on SAT Reading, Writing, and Math), the ACT and SAT both provide students with subscores . The stated goals of these subscores are to “provide more detail about student achievement”(SAT ) and give students a"better understanding [of] strengths and areas for 4 1: What are SAT/ACT Subscores? improvement in each subject" (ACT ) . The subscores calculated on each test fall under one of two different categories: 1. Section-level subscores: These “reporting categories”subscores give information about the different types of question within a specific section (e.g. types of Math questions) . 2. Cross-test scores: These subscores give information about how student is doing on a specific topic, computed by combining information from multiple sections (e.g. Math and Science on the ACT to get the STEM subscore) . 5 2: Can You Compare Subscores? > Key Point: Some section-level subscores are comparable between the SAT and ACT; cross-test and other subscores are less clearly linked. The short answer: yes, some subscores can be compared. The closest relationships are between the SAT and ACT essay subscores, followed by the SAT Writing and ACT English subscores . In practical terms, this means, for example, that students who score highly on all the ACT essay subscores can expect to do fairly well on the SAT 6 2: Can You Compare Subscores? essay subscores, while students who don't do well on ACT English subscores can anticipate similarly poor resultson SAT Writing subscores . By contrast, it's unlikely that students would see any relationship between their subscores on SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and ACT Reading, because the subscores measure such different things . If you get high ACT Reading subscores, that's great, but it doesn't tell you anything about how you'd do on Evidence-Based Reading and Writing subscores . This is even more true for ACT Science, since the only sciencerelated subscore on the SAT measures something completely different from what the ACT Science subscores are trying to capture . Subscores for SAT/ACT Math fall into the middle between the highly comparable SAT/ACT essay and Writing/English subscores and the divergent SAT/ACT Reading subscores . There is s

FAQs

What are SAT and ACT subscores used for?

SAT and ACT subscores provide more detailed information about students’ achievement in specific categories beyond total and section scores, helping identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Can you compare subscores between the SAT and ACT?

Some subscores can be compared, especially closely related areas like SAT/ACT essay subscores and SAT Writing vs ACT English subscores, while other areas have weaker or unclear links.

What are the two main categories of subscores?

Subscores fall into section-level subscores (reporting categories within a section) and cross-test scores (topics inferred by combining results across multiple sections).

Why should students compare subscores across both tests?

Comparing subscores can show whether it’s worth taking both the SAT and ACT by indicating how likely performance in one test area predicts performance in the related areas of the other test.

Sep 14, 2026

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