<p>ok. so i'm currently a junior and a member of the lovely new SAT guinea pig class of '06. i was talking to my mom the other day about the new SAT and whatnot, and she suggested taking both the ACT and new SAT. she suggested the ACT because it would give the colleges something to compare to past classes...</p>
<p>so i was wondering...</p>
<p>what are all your lovely opinions on taking the ACT as well as the new SAT?? </p>
<p>(i realize that the tests are different and people sometimes do better on one than the other, and i'm a pretty good standardized test taker so i'm not concerned about which one i'd do better on, just whether or not i should spend that extra time studying and taking it)</p>
<p>Hi! We are in the same situation here. D is a junior. D was advised to take the old SAT Jan 22, also take the ACT. Punch line to this is to know IF your colleges will accept the OLD SAT score. So I spent an hour on the phone this morning, calling admissions offices all over the country, (D has not narrowed the field), with only 1 exception - Haverford - all schools told me they will accept the highest score of either test - old/new SAT or ACT. The general opinion was that this will be a "transitional" time.</p>
<p>Other than the addition of writing, I think the majority will likely find the new SAT to be better than the old one with the elimination of analogies. That section, with its bent to using words never used by anyone except pompous psuedo-scholars and sadistic SAT test preparers, has never really measured anything except the ability of some to memorize a bunch of forgetable words in a short period of time. Taking both the ACT and SAT is fine although more important will be doing some preparation/prep course for at least one of the tests. </p>
<p>The real problem I perceive that will potentially affect admissions is not that there is a new test but that the new test will bring the admissions process to a virtual halt. Colleges are relying on the testing agencies to be effecient and quick and get to them test scores on time to make decisions. Colleges with ED or EA will not be changing their usual rules such as that an app is due for that process by November 1, a decision will be made by early December, and they will take tests through the October (and some even November) testing dates for that purpose. It is that last point that will be the killer. The testing agencies are assuring everyone that they will be able to grade those tests in time for everything but I have my doubts. Just look at what happens now with the SAT II writing -- as other posts on this board have shown, there are many still waiting for their October score on that one. The writing section requires hand grading, meaning they have to hire people to do it. With the SAT II writing, they are likely grading at most about 25,000 tests per sitting and they are curerently not doing a very good job in getting the tests graded quickly. When the SAT I adds the writing, they will have to hand-grade 200-300,000 tests per sitting. To do that quickly, they have to hire a huge number of graders and all those graders will then have to devote a lot of time to get it done. Now, there is one thing I am pretty certain of: the testing companies ain't going to be paying much to get people to grade the tests and that means they may fall short (by a large margin) in hiring enough people to do it and may have many who are hired who will not be super-motivated to move through all those boring essays quickly. I can picture Princeton sitting there in December waiting for the tests it was supposed to get in early November for ED decisions and being told by ETS that "there is bit of a delay, and we apologize for it." This nightmare scenario might not happen, The testing companies may be super-competent and hire all the graders they need and all of them will be diligent and quick. Yeah, right! We will wait and see.</p>