ACT Test Prep: Everything You Need to Know About Superscoring
Superscoring is a newer concept that some colleges allow students to use when submitting their standardized test scores with their college applications. Here, we’ll walk you through how superscoring works and how it can benefit students during the college application process.
The ACT and SAT are both high-stakes college entrance exams that institutions use to determine if a student will be a good fit for their school. Both tests examine students on a handful of different topics in an effort to give colleges an idea of a student’s general academic performance. There are many other pieces that go into a college application, and your ACT score isn’t the only thing schools care about, but standardized test scores are important, as they act as a common datapoint across applicants, which can then be used to compare prospective students from all parts of the world.
When scoring the SAT, the scores for the math sections and the English/Language Arts scores are computed separately and then put together to calculate a student’s full SAT score. For the ACT, students receive a score for each of four sections individually, graded on each English, math, reading, and science, and then the average of those sections is taken to get their composite score.
Here, we’ll be focusing specifically on the ACT. Oftentimes, colleges only ask students to include their composite ACT score with their applications. However, since the composite score is calculated by averaging the four separate sections’ scores, the composite may not necessarily be a perfect reflection of a student as a whole. For instance, what about when a student does really well on one section but maybe not as well on another? Their overall composite score doesn’t always do a great job of showing college admissions teams where their strengths lie.
Take, for example, the student who scores very high in areas of English and reading but struggles with science and math. Their composite ACT score may not illustrate either their strengths or their weaknesses and may instead show a test score of a student who performs at an about average-level.
That’s where superscoring comes in.
Not all schools currently accept superscoring when reporting ACT scores with college apps, so make sure to do your research and know what the schools you’re applying to require in this area. Some will require a simple composite score to be reported—some let you report your highest score, but some may require you to report your MOST RECENT composite score, whether it was your highest score or not. Again, make sure you do your homework and know what specific schools want to see.
For superscoring, a school will accept the highest score a student received in each separate category of the ACT. Colleges and universities that accept ACT superscores will ask students to provide their HIGHEST ACT SCORE FOR EACH SECTION SEPARATELY. That means that if your science score was highest the first time you took the test, you can include that score on your application. Similarly, if your English score has gradually gone up each time you’ve taken the test, you can include your most recent English score. This will continue with your math and reading scores, and then you will calculate your superscore based on these section highs, regardless of if all the scores were achieved on the same test date.
Here’s an example:
Benny takes the ACT three times. His scores are below.
February ACT
COMPOSITE: 23
ENGLISH: 21
MATH: 23
READING: 26
SCIENCE: 22
June ACT
COMPOSITE: 26
ENGLISH: 29
MATH: 27
READING: 23
SCIENCE: 24
September ACT:
COMPOSITE: 25
ENGLISH: 23
MATH: 28
READING: 23
SCIENCE: 26
The college that requires Benny to submit his most recent ACT score will see a 25. The college that lets Benny submit his highest ACT score will see a 26. But the college that lets Benny superscore his ACT results will let him use the English score from June, the math and science scores from September, and the reading score from February. This superscore comes out to 27. So, while the scores are all pretty close, the superscore does push Benny’s overall score up by a full point here.
Superscoring can be a really nice option for students to have available to them. Currently, many students will take the ACT multiple times before submitting their college apps. Many students will spend a lot of time studying and preparing for the test, playing with different ACT strategies and tips and tricks, wanting to put in the effort needed to reach their goal ACT score. However, it’s definitely possible that sometimes scores can go backwards or remain stagnant for a variety of reasons. Maybe the chosen strategies proved to be ineffective. Maybe a student comes down with an awful cold two days before the exam. Maybe there are other factors in a student’s personal life or at school that are causing them to be overwhelmed and stressed or distracted. A student who does really well on the February ACT might not do as well on the June ACT simply because they’re swarmed with final tests or their brain is already getting into summer vacation mode. Whatever the reason may be, superscoring allows students to pick and choose their highest individual scores across each section of the ACT and report those in their college applications. This takes the worry away from try to match or surpass previous strong scores.
New ACT research on superscoring took a look at four different ACT score-reporting methods: highest score, most recent score, average total of scores, and superscoring. While superscoring has been subject to skepticism in regards to how well it portrays a student’s ability in academics, the new research shows that superscoring is actually the BEST method at predicting what a first-year college student’s GPA will be.
Then again, while superscoring might make a student look like a more impressive candidate than a lack of superscoring, you have to remember that schools that allow superscoring on their college application allow ALL students to submit their superscores. That means that, while this concept may give schools a better idea of a student’s capabilities within a given subject or topic area, it really does not give students a “one-up” on other applicants. Every applicant has the option of submitting their ACT scores as superscores.
That means students should still take the ACT and preparing their college applications seriously. College admissions is incredibly competitive right now, so high standardized test scores and a strong college application are key.
We encourage students to begin to consider prepping for and taking the ACT at the end of their sophomore year or the beginning of their junior year. For more information, take a look at our ACT Test Prep & College Acceptance Success Timeline.
Good luck, and happy studying!
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