I often get asked questions in regards to how college admission officers review the scores off the ACT and SAT. Questions like "Will colleges take my highest SAT scores?"; "Do colleges take the highest individual SAT subscore and add then add those?"; "What ACT scores are looked at?"; and the list goes on.
Personally, I hate the fact that colleges put so much weight on one assessment to give them indication of what a student really can do. It is quite often that I find a highly motivated hard-working student who achieves high academics, but they do average or below average just because they are not a good test taker. Seems unfair. But, as I say to my students "Fair is basically about the only place where pigs get blue ribbons." ACT & SAT scores are a reality and until there is a better way of assessing a students abilities, we have to learn all the aspects of testing so that we can deal with it. Understanding superscoring of standardized tests is just one of the ways of keeping informed.
What is superscoring? Lets' start with the SAT (since that's the easiest to explain). Superscoring the SAT means that the colleges admissions officers will take the highest score of each sub-section of each test date and add them all together to get you total score. For example:
Test 1 Reading 460 Math 520 Writing 560 Total 1540
Test 2 Reading 520 Math 500 Writing 560 Total 1580
Superscore Reading 520 Math 520 Writing 560 Total 1600
That's it - highest score for each section and total. Most colleges in the US do SAT superscore. If you want to double check (and I encourage this), check SAT®Score-Use Practices
by Participating Institution which lists all the colleges and how they actually score in regards to SAT.
ACT superscoring is a little more complicated. That's probably why most colleges don't. However, that's changing, as each year goes by I find that more and more colleges are beginning to superscore the ACT as well (just not as many as the SAT).
Here's how ACT superscore works:
Superscoring the ACT is when you take the best subscores from multiple test dates (i.e the best English, best Math, best Reading and best Science) and take a NEW average for the composite score.
Test 1 Reading 29 Math 27 English 28 Science 31 Composite 29
Test 2 Reading 32 Math 25 English 29 Science 29 Composite 29
Superscore Reading 32 Math 27 English 29 Science 31 Composite 30
Tom Johnson, a private College Admissions Consultant, has posted all the colleges that superscore the ACT (updated October 28, 2014).
As you can see, superscoreing really helps give a better indication of a students ability. I've even had students figure out which test they would be better at and them take the test a few time focusing on studying each separate section. That way they can do their best, do their best, and the colleges look at the best score. By the way...for those of you who worry that a college admissions might see your low scores and get concerned...college admissions don't have time to scrutinize each score on each test for each student applying. Bottom line - if they superscore they look for the highest scores record them and move on to the next bit of necessary information.
Personally, I hate the fact that colleges put so much weight on one assessment to give them indication of what a student really can do. It is quite often that I find a highly motivated hard-working student who achieves high academics, but they do average or below average just because they are not a good test taker. Seems unfair. But, as I say to my students "Fair is basically about the only place where pigs get blue ribbons." ACT & SAT scores are a reality and until there is a better way of assessing a students abilities, we have to learn all the aspects of testing so that we can deal with it. Understanding superscoring of standardized tests is just one of the ways of keeping informed.
What is superscoring? Lets' start with the SAT (since that's the easiest to explain). Superscoring the SAT means that the colleges admissions officers will take the highest score of each sub-section of each test date and add them all together to get you total score. For example:
Test 1 Reading 460 Math 520 Writing 560 Total 1540
Test 2 Reading 520 Math 500 Writing 560 Total 1580
Superscore Reading 520 Math 520 Writing 560 Total 1600
That's it - highest score for each section and total. Most colleges in the US do SAT superscore. If you want to double check (and I encourage this), check SAT®Score-Use Practices
by Participating Institution which lists all the colleges and how they actually score in regards to SAT.
ACT superscoring is a little more complicated. That's probably why most colleges don't. However, that's changing, as each year goes by I find that more and more colleges are beginning to superscore the ACT as well (just not as many as the SAT).
Here's how ACT superscore works:
Superscoring the ACT is when you take the best subscores from multiple test dates (i.e the best English, best Math, best Reading and best Science) and take a NEW average for the composite score.
Test 1 Reading 29 Math 27 English 28 Science 31 Composite 29
Test 2 Reading 32 Math 25 English 29 Science 29 Composite 29
Superscore Reading 32 Math 27 English 29 Science 31 Composite 30
Tom Johnson, a private College Admissions Consultant, has posted all the colleges that superscore the ACT (updated October 28, 2014).
As you can see, superscoreing really helps give a better indication of a students ability. I've even had students figure out which test they would be better at and them take the test a few time focusing on studying each separate section. That way they can do their best, do their best, and the colleges look at the best score. By the way...for those of you who worry that a college admissions might see your low scores and get concerned...college admissions don't have time to scrutinize each score on each test for each student applying. Bottom line - if they superscore they look for the highest scores record them and move on to the next bit of necessary information.