<p>Hi,
My son is a junior and his school has both the new SAT and the ACT test coming up this spring. They push the ACT because most colleges will except that alone and it shows more overall knowledge than the SAT. I wondered if anyone has taken it yet and what they thought. My son was disheartened to see that some of the more competive colleges he has been looking at (Wesleyan/Amherst to name 2) also want 2-3 subject tests along with the new SAT.Those are said to be very difficult also and I think that along with his regular exams and later AP tests, has taken the fun out of searching for schools. I wonder how much your schoolwork and references weigh in with the tests. Thanks for any feedback.</p>
<p>New SAT all the way.
I'm a SAT fan. :)</p>
<p>There is a long discussion going on now by those who just took the new SAT and you can easily find it on the subject page. </p>
<p>You should note that both Amherst and Wesleyan take the ACT in lieu of both the SAT and SAT II's, meaning you can get into those with the ACT only as long as you include its optional writing section. That is also true of a number of other colleges that usually require SAT II's, e.g., Yale, Brown, Penn, Tufts, Vassar, Duke, John Hopkins, Trinity, Brandeis, Boston College. At almost all colleges performance in high school classes is more important than test scores, but the degree of importance of test scores varies among colleges, e.g., University of Chicago actually considers test score to be of lower importance than grades, high school courses, EC's that indicate intellectual pursuit, and essays.</p>
<p>Thanks, lost my elec. for a while (how lost you feel then)and couldn't check any sites. His school requires that he take the ACT with writing, and I'm hoping he does well on it. When I saw a lot of competitive schools wanted so much with the SAT, I thought, what is wrong with that test? They obviously don't think it gives a true picture and the ACT does. I haven't found a school yet, at least on the the east coast, that asks for anything more than ACT with writing. Although a lot of competive schools say they don't weigh it heavily, I've gotten so I really don't know what is the truth. There is always a lot of gray.</p>