SAT or ACT — which one should my teen take?

"Should my kid take the SAT or the ACT?" Somebody in your group chat asked that this week, and every answer she got was somebody's opinion.

Here is what I would tell you if we were sitting together. This was never a question you answer with an opinion. It is a question about your own child, and you can answer it this weekend, at home, for free.

The SAT is fully digital now. It is also adaptive, which means the second half of each section gets harder or easier depending on how your teen did on the first half.

The ACT stays the same the whole way through. English, Math, and Reading make up the score colleges see. Science is now optional, and when your teen takes it, that score is reported on its own.

Here is the part that surprises most parents. Colleges do not prefer one test over the other. Your teen will not be penalized for choosing the ACT, and no admissions office is sitting there wishing they had sent an SAT score instead.

But your teen is not equally good at both tests. Almost nobody is. One of these tests will show what your child can really do, and the other one will make them look weaker than they are. That difference is worth real money, and I will show you exactly how much in a few minutes.

The College Board has a free app called Bluebook. It is the same app your teen will use on real test day, and it has full practice tests built right into it. Your teen takes the real test format, on the real screen, and gets a real score at the end.

One thing before you go looking for it, because this trips families up. Bluebook does not work on a phone. Your teen will need a Mac or Windows laptop, an iPad, or a school Chromebook.

Download Bluebook here: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/practice/practice-tests/bluebook

The ACT gives you the same thing. The people who write the test publish a free practice test, and the one on their site right now matches the shorter version your teen will actually take.

Get the free ACT practice test here: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation/free-act-test-prep.html

Today, have your teen take the SAT practice test in Bluebook. Tomorrow, have them take the ACT practice test.

Keep both days the same. Set a timer, put the phone in another room, and give them one short break in the middle. I know that is a lot to ask of a weekend. It is two mornings that can change what your family pays for four years of college.

Then you compare the two scores, and this is where families get stuck. A 26 and a 1150 do not look anything alike, so there is no way to tell which one is better just by looking. I made you a chart that solves that.

Here is the chart, so you can look up your own teen's scores instead of taking my word for it.

In that example, the 26 on the ACT is the stronger score by about 90 points. So the ACT is the test your teen prepares for from here on out. Just that one. Preparing for both tests splits their time and costs you more than it helps.

The University of Alabama posts its scholarship amounts right on its website. These are not scholarships your teen competes for. Your teen either has the score and the grade point average or does not, and the amounts are listed in advance so any family can look them up.

Go back to our example. That teen has a 1150 on the SAT and a 26 on the ACT. On Alabama's chart, a 1150 gets nothing, because their scholarships start at 1200. That same teen's 26 on the ACT, with a 3.5 grade point average, earns $6,000 a year. Over four years, that is $24,000, and the only thing that changed was which score they sent.

The amounts climb from there. On that same chart, a 29 is worth $15,000 a year, and a 30 is worth $24,000 a year. Moving from a 29 to a 30 is one point, and it is worth $9,000 more a year, or $36,000 across four years.

Alabama did not favor the ACT here. Their chart pays the same for a 26 as it does for a 1240. This teen is simply stronger on the ACT, and until they took both tests, nobody in the family knew it.

That is why I am asking you for two mornings. Not because a practice test is fun, but because guessing at this question is one of the most expensive mistakes a family can make without ever realizing it.

_{Source: University of Alabama scholarship amounts for entering freshmen, afford.ua.edu, checked August 15, 2026. Colleges update these amounts every year, so always check the school's own website before you count on a number.}

Once your family knows which test won, one good book does most of the work. These are the two I recommend.

Princeton Review Digital SAT Premium Prep 2026

This is the one I recommend most. It comes with six full practice tests, and three of them are online and adaptive, so they behave like the real test instead of sitting flat on a page.

This is the one on my shelf.

The Official ACT Prep Guide 2026-2027

For the ACT, I go straight to the source. This one comes from the people who write the test, so the questions are real questions from past tests and the timing matches the shorter format.

And this is the ACT one, straight from the test maker.

After this weekend, the next question is what your family does with that score. That is what The High School College Planner walks you through, including which colleges to send a score to and which ones are better off never seeing it.

Download the first 30 pages of the planner here: https://stan.store/collegecosthacks/p/the-first-30-pages-of-the-high-school-college-plan

And whatever your teen scores this weekend, please hear me on this. That number tells you which test to prepare for. It does not tell you anything about who your child is or how far they will go.

I will be back on Tuesday, and we are talking about the cheapest way your teen can earn college credit before their first day of class.

— Angela

P.S. Forward this to the parent in your group chat who keeps asking the SAT question. The Bluebook tip alone is worth the forward, and when you share it using your own link below, I will send you The FAFSA Week Kit, free.