<p>Son scored a 30 on the ACT this spring (very proud, and yes, somewhat unexpected); however, the writing portion was not included in the exam. He will need to retake an exam in the fall to get the writing portion in. His strengths are English/Reading and we expect he will score very well in the writing portion of either test. </p>
<p>I vote he takes the SAT b/c: a) I understand it slightly favors those w/ English/Reading skills, and b) few schools will super-score your ACT. My better half is on the side of sticking to the ACT out of familiarity.</p>
<p>Put another way I think taking the SAT is a no-lose situation. Score relatively better than the 30 and he wins, or score worse than the 30 then simply refer back to the ACT/30 and look at the individual writing score on the SAT. Or am I delusional in thinking that a college that requires a writing score will accept a super-scored ACT/SAT hybred?</p>
<p>A college will not accept writing from one test, and the sub scores from another. Either your son has to take the ACT again, with writing, or the SAT.</p>
<p>As for what test to take, I’d advise that you have him take practice tests of both. Figure out based on the practice tests which he will do better on, and have him do that one.</p>
<p>I’d honestly advise continuing with the ACT and trying to improve his score even more. SAT requires quite a bit of consistent practice and totally different set of skills than ACT. It would be of no benefit to either of you for him to abandon all his work in this one area and pursue something completely different. </p>
<p>Colleges will not accept a superscore between different types of tests.</p>
<p>If he is in Junior, he is running out of time for retake before EA/ED applications. Anyway, as Debater1996 said, he should try several practice test on both to see which one favors him more. After all, you would never know unless you take both real test as the format and section arrangement may stressed you out differently in a real test. My D got comparable scores consistently in practice tests of both (2300+/35+) but she got lower SAT scores than expected twice in a row. So I think the extra $50 is well spent to try the other test also. So my suggestion is to practice both over the summer and take both in early Fall.</p>
<p>ACT without writing will probably not count at many schools. So he should definitely retake the ACT and hope to repeat the 30 or even do better. Some schools will superscored the ACT. </p>
<p>Why not take the SAT too? It’s so hard to predict how you’ll do on each test , or for that matter any particular sitting for a test. I’ve seen both d’s randomly increase scores significantly for one sitting on both the SAT and ACT (670 to 720 on reading, 680 to 780 on writing, 30 to 35 on math–without studying more!)</p>