<p>A friends son, a junior, took his first SAT and it appears that the writing portion is going to do him in. Other scores good- 600s; but writing in the low 400s. Hes going to take another test in the spring, and possibly one more next fall when hes a senior (hes not into test-taking at all and is balking at the thought of taking lots of tests over the next year). Heres the question- would it be better to put the effort into doing as well as possible on the SAT, try to bring up the old part into the 1300-1400 range and hope for writing to get up to 600? Or would it be better to try the ACT? Im not familiar with the ACT, but I thought it too had a writing component. Since his writing is weak, my advice to her was stick with the SAT and concentrate on colleges who look less at the writing portion and bring up the other parts, rather than going for the ACT, where writing will become part of the final score. Anyone have any ideas?</p>
<p>I am always in favor of taking both tests, no matter how high the student scores on one. Since ACT has score choice, there is no disadvantage. </p>
<p>The ACT also has an essay section which is required by most schools. </p>
<p>Another excellent reason for taking both is that the ACT can serve as SAT Subject Tests for many (but not all) schools that require Subject Tests.</p>
<p>
[quote]
rather than going for the ACT, where writing will become part of the “final” score.
[/quote]
Actually that's backwards. The Writing portion of the ACT is not computed into the Composite Score. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.act.org/aap/writing/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.act.org/aap/writing/index.html</a> and more specifically from the ACT site "Taking the Writing Test does not affect subject area scores or the Composite score."
<a href="http://www.act.org/aap/writing/sample/rubric.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.act.org/aap/writing/sample/rubric.html</a></p>
<p>ACT has a "writing" section that is not an essay - it's a grammar section. That section will be part of "final" score. The essay is graded separately.</p>
<p>I agree that taking both tests is a good strategy.</p>
<p>My son took both (though he didn't do writing on ACT; he didn't feel like it when he registered and I didn't know enough then to say he should do it). He did well on both and is reporting both to colleges (can't hurt to have corroborating evidence), but if one had been bad, all of his schools accept either, so it would have been a big advantage to be able to report the best one. And some kids , I've heard, do score much better on one than on the other.</p>
<p>nngmm, sorry. That is not correct. OP check the links above. ACT has 4 multiple choice sections English, Reading, Science and Math and one optional 30 minute essay called Writing. <a href="http://www.act.org/aap/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.act.org/aap/index.html</a></p>
<p>The Writing (Essay) and the English score are combined to give a combined English/Writing score which is not used in the Composite.
For those who don't like links,
</p>
<p>In light of our experience with kid #1, we have a new SAT/ACT game plan with kid #2. This plan is predicated on the fact that whenever you take an SAT I or II, you are stuck showing every other SAT I AND SAT II you've taken previously to colleges when you send the new score. With the ACT, on the other hand, you can bury your scores from any sitting you don't like and send only the sitting or sittings that you do like.</p>
<p>Kid #1 took the SAT I first, did OK but not superbly, and was miserable cramming SAT knowledge for the next sitting. She found many questions ambiguous and felt that she could have made the case that none of the answers was exactly right, and two of the answers were somewhat right, on a number of (non-math) questions. And the essay, which involved commenting on a truly mindless platitude, really bothered her.</p>
<p>She immediately took the ACT, on which she was over pretty much every potential college's 75%, and was quite happy. Unfortunately, she had to send SAT II's to a couple of her colleges, which meant that she was stuck showing those colleges her (only sitting of) SAT I. Her GC advised her not to bother retaking SAT I and just to redo ACT on the off chance that she could raise her one weak area. She studied the weak area intensively for about a month and increased that score enough to raise her composite by 2 points. And the ACT essay was on an actual, although not too inspiring topic, as in school uniforms, yes or no? </p>
<p>The fact that colleges got to see the SAT I score, which was not in the same league as the ACT scores, caused a great deal of anxiety, and it's hard to know if it played a role in wait list and rejection decisions at a couple of schools.</p>
<p>With all this, we're going to have kid #2 take the ACT FIRST. If he does well, we are going to forget about the SAT I altogether. Why bother? This will save him a whole lot of prep, anxiety and related grief; Kid #1 found ACT prep a whole lot more straigtforward and easier to target in terms of areas of weakness. Kid #2 will then almost certainly be stuck taking SAT II's, but he won't have to worry about an SAT I potentially hurting his profile. If, on the other hand, it turns out that the ACT is not for him, he'll move on to the SAT I, with the possiblity of burying his ACT scores if his SAT I scores are better. </p>
<p>But there is no way on earth I would have a kid take the SAT I without first checking out the ACT, the results of which can be kept private.</p>
<p>I should add that while we had nothing but grief with the ETS losing SAT scores, telling us a million different things about what had happened to the scores, and generally behaving badly with the sort of terrible, smug attitude that only a semi-monopoly can afford to cultivate in its customer service dept., the folks at the ACT gave clear, accurate info, produced and sent scores when they said they were going to, and were polite and friendly.</p>
<p>In summary, the lesson we've taken from all this is, try ACT. If you like it, forget SAT I. Period. Take SAT II's only if your colleges demand or "recommend" (as in demand) them. </p>
<p>I would only deviate from this path if National Merit were a signigicant factor.</p>
<p>db:</p>
<p>it depends on what did him in on the W section. 400 is beyond low, in light of the 600 CR. Was it the essay? Was he still asleep (it's the first test)? Is he week in grammar? Its important to understand his weaknesses, since the ACT English also covers grammar. The essays on both ACT and SAT are extremely forumulaic -- Shakespeare would recieve a 1 -- no creativity allowed or wanted.</p>
<p>IMO, the best you can advise your friend is to pick up an ACT test book and take a test at home, and try to find the weak areas.</p>
<p>How soon are you able to get your ACT scores? I think with the SAT you can access them on line after about 2 wks for an additional fee? Is this true for the ACT? We are trying to see how S does with the Feb Act in enough time to decide whether to have him prep for a second ACT or prep for the Spring SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I'd forgotten all about the score choice advantage with the ACT. It's worth it for that alone. As far as his writing goes, according to mom, he did badly on both the essay and on the grammar multiple choice. That was why I originally didn't think it would be to his advantage to take the ACT. But I wasn't thinking about the score choice.</p>
<p>dogs,</p>
<p>When in doubt, look it up! <a href="http://www.actstudent.org/scores/early/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.actstudent.org/scores/early/index.html</a></p>