<p>My son is taking the ACT tomorrow and he signed up for writing. He was waitlisted at this school, and to be honest, it's more of a formality at this point. Chances are extremely slim he will be admitted. He needs to be denied first, before he can apply to a different program within the university. Since it's really just a formality that he's taking it, is there any reason he needs to put himself throught writing portion.</p>
<p>When he's at the exam tomorrow morning, when it comes time to do the writing, can he just say he is opting out of it and leave?</p>
<p>Does he already have a writing score? If he does and he wants to use the previous ACT for all his applications that’s fine. In that case why go at all? If he wants to see if his total score improves to use at other schools he should take the writing test. Some colleges will not accept the ACT without the writing.</p>
<p>It looks like it is fine IF the testing center can accommodate him. It may be that they give the test with writing in different rooms than the test without writing so that they need to find him a seat. </p>
<p>We’re actually thinking of doing the same since I found out recently that the schools to which we are sending it only require one administration of test with writing and any other sittings can omit it, but still have the composite from the date considered by the school for highest single sitting.</p>
<p>@conmama, if it’s IU-B, they only require that one writing score be on file. If your S already has one, that is enough and he can skip the writing tomorrow. It doesn’t say so clearly on their website, so they have people calling them about it all the time. </p>
<p>For my S this will make a huge difference. The writing is the most hated part of test for him and the test as a whole goes on rather too long for his stamina. Even though the writing is last and I tell him not to fret about that section, he does anyway and the anxiety about it affects his performance on the earlier sections. </p>
<p>I’ve been amazed to find out the places that only require one writing score on file. I just found out about this a few days ago when I noticed the policy on another university website. Some schools have a policy that if you have an SAT writing on file, any ACTs can be sans writing, eg, Vanderbilt. That is the policy at IU-B as well. SAT writing is enough. Even if this is first ACT, he can skip the wwriting.</p>