SAT Popularity Soars as ACT Adapts: Which Test is Best?

While elite colleges and students reconsidered the value of the tests and the SAT gained consumers, the ACT made changes over the past two years to claw back market share. January 18, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EST1 minute ago As more college applicants decide to take entrance exams and elite schools return to pre-pandemic norms to require the SAT or ACT, students face a key question: Which test should they take? Overwhelmingly, students have picked the SAT in the past few years, making it the most popular standardized test for U.S. high-schoolers applying to college. Among the class of 2025, 45 percent more students took the SAT than the ACT, numbers reported by the testing companies show.