Lee Academia Educational Consulting, LLC
  • About Us
    • Mission/Philosophy
    • FAQ
    • Testimonials
  • Educational Consulting
    • Secondary School Admission
    • College Admissions Planning >
      • Early Guidance
      • College Application >
        • Brag Sheet/Resume
      • Scholarships & the FAFSA
      • Interview Training
      • BS/MD Program Consultation
      • Gap Year / Transfer Students
    • Graduate School
    • Ivy League Package
    • College Major & Career Counseling
    • Athetics Program
    • International Students
    • Pro Bono Counseling
  • Test Prep/ Academic Tutoring
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Enroll >
      • Online Courses
    • Seminars
    • Partnership Programs >
      • Referring for Educational Consulting
      • Services for Corporations
    • Jobs
  • 中文
    • 學院諮詢
  • 한국어
  • 2016 College Application Essay Boot Camp
  • Student Profile - Grace Xu
  • College Board SAT

Superscoring: What is it?

9/5/2014

0 Comments

 
With the big day arriving soon, students are also going to anticipate their standardized test score report to arrive when they finish. And lucky for them, instead of waiting for the hard paper copy of the score report to arrive, scores are available online. 

SAT Superscore

Now, let’s assume that on the SAT, you received a 560 in Critical Reading, a 740 in Mathematics, and a 630 in Writing. Your overall score would be an 1930 (out of 2400). Students might compare their score to the scores of admitted college applicants. This measure is somewhat helpful in determining what their scores mean, but what students really want to look at are their percentile ranks.

While our imaginary scores would place you above 78 percent of the students in the country for your reading score, above 96 percent of students for math, and above 82 percent of students in writing. Note that although you have a separate score reported for your essay (on a scale of 1-12), that score is already part of the complex calculation used to arrive at the 600. You will also see a writing subscore for the multiple choice questions (on a scale of 20-80). The score between 200 and 800 is what matters.

Keep in mind that your scores are estimates. And the many versions of the SAT all have the same level of difficulty among all the various questions; the SAT writers are only human. 

This is part of the reason that some colleges superscore the SAT. Many students take the SAT multiple times. We recommend that students take the SAT no more than two times. There are variations in the test content, thus the second time a student takes the SAT, he might do worse in reading but much better in math. And it would not be fair if your higher reading score from the first test was disregarded. So, some schools will look at all of the test scores you submit and use the highest score you achieved in each section. For example, they may take your reading score from your first test and your math and writing scores from your second test and then combine them to give you your highest score possible out of 2400. 

The College Board publishes data that tells us whether the schools we are interested in superscore or only look at the scores from the last time you took the test. If you have ever wondered how applicants at Ivy League schools seem to have near perfect SAT scores, this is how. Few applicants attending the elite institutions scored a perfect 2400 in a single attempt.

ACT Superscore

If students took the ACT, the percentile-based interpretation of their scores makes more sense than does the numbers-based interpretation. In terms of percentiles, if scores are 82% in English, 75% in Math, 85% in Reading, and 90% in Science. Again, that’s the percentage of students across the country that you performed better than. The composite score is the average of those four subscores. If you took the optional essay, a separate English score is also reported (on a scale of 1 – 36) that combines the multiple-choice writing with the essay score, but the composite score uses only the multiple choice subscore.

Similar to the SAT, there is some variation across the ACT tests (with some being noticeably harder than others). Again, this is why the percentiles matter more than the raw score. 

The difference between the tests, though, is that superscoring is not widely practiced with the ACT. ACT recommends that colleges use a single highest composite score for their admissions criteria and many schools abide by this recommendation. The ACT content is presented in a more straightforward way, which allows students to easily assess their errors, practice, and improve their scores, thus taking the ACT after studying is beneficial.

SAT and ACT Tutoring

If you are considering hiring an expert SAT tutor or ACT tutor to help your child prepare for the SAT or ACT, Lee Academia can help. Please call us at 646.266.6084, so we can begin to develop a personalized SAT tutoring and/or ACT tutoring program for your child.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Stephenie Lee

    Stephenie, having been a tutor/instructor/mentor since 1996, discovered her passion and founded Lee Academia Educational Consulting, LLC. after she left the dental and medical field. She loves teaching/mentoring and counseling her students.  Her passion lies in educating others and helping them pursue their educational path. Today, certified in College Counseling and with more than 10 years of experience, Stephenie and her team continues to blog about current updated educational news and events.

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Archives

    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    May 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Academic Success
    Act
    Admissions Officers
    AMC
    Application Essays
    Art Portfolio
    Art School
    Art School Application
    Athletes
    Blogging
    College Admissions
    College Advice
    College Athlete Game Report
    Collegebound
    College Campus
    College Essays
    College Graduate
    College Life
    Colleges
    College Transition
    College Visits/tours
    Common Application
    Doctors
    English Test
    Extracurricular
    Fafsa
    Financial Aid
    Financial Aid Application
    Gap Year
    Graduate School
    Graduate Schools
    High School
    High School Guidance Counselor
    Homework
    IELTS
    Independent Schools
    Instruction
    International Students
    Internship
    Interview
    Ivy League
    Leadership
    Lee Academia Consultations
    Mathematics
    Mba Program
    Mcat
    Medical Admissions
    Middle School
    Motivation
    Note Taking
    Notetaking132adf906e
    Parents
    Paying For College
    Performing Arts Students
    Private School Admissions
    Psat
    Rankings
    Resume
    Root Words
    Safety Schools
    Satact
    SAT/ACT
    Scholar Athletes
    Scholarships
    Seniors
    Sports
    Ssat Test
    Student Athlete
    Student Life
    Study Abroad
    Study Skills
    Summer
    Teacher Letters Of Recommendation
    Teachers
    Test Prep
    Test Scores
    Time Management
    Toefl
    Transfer Student
    Tutoring
    Ultimate SAT/ACT
    Universal Application
    Us Colleges
    Visual Arts Students
    Vocabulary
    Waitlist

    RSS Feed

Lee ACademia Educational Consulting, LLC

646-266-6084