Super-Scoring on Standardized Tests like ACT/SAT

Faster than a speeding bullet, you can create trouble for yourself with standardized tests like the SAT or the ACT.

When you sign up for the tests with the College Board, or for the ACT, they give you the option of submitting everything to the colleges after you’re done taking the test.  Sounds convenient?

Don’t do it.

If you want to Super Score, you want your test scores to be more powerful than a locomotive, not faster.

Colleges let you take your best SAT/ACT scores and report them. Not the TOTAL score, but the individual scores from any of the tests that you’ve taken.

Let’s say, on the SAT, that you got a 790 on your math, a 540 on your reading, and a 600 on your writing.  You take the SAT again, and this time you get a 700 on your math, but a 690 on your reading and a 720 on your writing.

The second test overall is a bit better, even though you did a bit worse on your math.  Instead of just reporting the best test, you can pick the scores you want to send to the college board.

Instead of reporting test one at 1930, or a 2110 on the second, you can report a super score of 2,200 on those three components by picking the best ones amongst your tests.

Since you need to take multiple tests to use the super scoring system, you need to make sure that you DO NOT report your scores to the college for each test.

Some schools will tell you that it doesn’t matter. They pick out the top three scores on their own.  Some do. The problem, when you let the colleges pick, is that they can see everything. It may never be a problem, BUT, if things get tight, and you get down to two candidates of very equal standing, and one of them reported everything, including lower scores, and the other person didn’t, that may be a tie splitter.

So, wait until you order your SAT score reports for the colleges that you choose when you’re ready to apply.