Do Colleges Average Your SAT Scores

Do Colleges Average Your SAT Scores SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Have you taken the SAT more than once?Are you wondering howcolleges will look at multiple test scores? Will they reviewall your scores? Onlyyour highest score? Will they average your scores and use that number?Standardized test scores are an important part of applying to college, but it’s not always clear how schoolswill review your SAT scores if you send them more than one set of scores. Will colleges average your SATscores if you take the test multiple times? In short, no. Colleges don’t take the average of your scores. Instead, they will look at your â€Å"best† score,however; there are multiple ways a school can calculate that.In this article, I’ll go over the variousmethods schools use to look at multiple SATscores, if they require you to send all your SATscores, and how you can use this information to your advantage and help strengthen your college applications. Do You Need to Send Schools All Your SAT Scores? The first thing you need to know, before you start wondering what colleges do with multiple SATscores, is tolearnif the schools you're interested in actually require you to send the results of every SATyou took. If they don't, you may want to take the SAT a few times, and then only send your best score. Infact, most schools do NOTrequire you to send in all your scores, and the College Boardmakes it easy to choose which scores you want to send with an option referred to asScore Choice. Schools that require you to send in all of your SATscores will be referred to as "All Scores" schools. I'll discuss bothin more detail below. Score Choice Score Choice gives you the option to send schools only the SATscores you want them to see,rather than sending scores from every SATyou took. On the score report request form, you will be asked to list your college of choice and the test date you want to send on each line. For schools that allow Score Choice, if you did poorly on one test date, you don’t need to send that score to schools, and they will never see it. This means that if you take the SATfourtimes, you can choose to send only your best score, or your best two scores, or as many scores as you'd like. Be aware that ifyou are using Score Choice and choose to send your scores from a specific test date, you must send your scores for the entire test; you cannot only send individual section scores to schools. All Scores Some schools, including certain highly selective schools like Yale and Duke, requireyou to send all your SATscores.This means that you cannot use Score Choice, and youmust send these schoolsthe scoresofevery SATyou took, even if there was a particular test date when you didn’t score as well as you usually do. So, if you took the SAT fourtimes, you need to send these schoolsyour results from each of those fourtest dates. Check out our complete list of schools that require you to send all your SAT scores. What Do Colleges Do If You Send Multiple SATScores? You may end up sending a school more than one SATscore, either because theyrequire it or because you earnedmultiple strong scores and want schools to see them. So what do colleges do if they receive more than one SATscore from you? There are several options, and I'llexplain each below. Superscoring If a school uses superscoring, that means they take your highest score from each SAT test section and combine those scores into a Superscore. Look at the table below to see an example of how superscoring works. Critical Reading Mathematics Writing Total Score Test 1 710 800 750 2260 Test 2 800 780 700 2280 Test 3 750 750 800 2300 Superscore 800 800 800 2400 This student took the SAT three times, and even though shenever had a perfect test, at one point shegot perfect scores on each of the test sections. Superscoring combines the highest scores from each section, in this case, an 800 for all three, to get a superscore of 2400. This is the SAT score superscoringschools will use when reviewing herapplication. This superscore is higherthan any of the composite SATscores for individual test dates Superscoring benefits you because you get to combine your best scores from each section of the SAT even if those scores didn’t occur in the same test.Wondering which colleges use superscoring? We have a complete list of schools that superscore the SAT. Highest Sitting Some schools don’t use superscoring, but instead use your highest composite SAT score from a single test date. In these cases, you cannot combine section scores from different test dates to get a higher score. Using the above example, schools that use highest sitting would consider her SAT score to be 2300, because that is the highest score she achieved on a single SAT exam. Will Schools Look at Your Other Scores? Regardless of whether a school uses superscoring or highest sitting, will they look at your "non-best" SATscores as well? There's no clear-cut answer to this question since it varies for each school and often for each applicant; however,many times schools will look at your other test scores, even if your best score is the one they give the most weight to. This is particularly true for schools that require all scores sent. In these cases, your scores still won't be averaged, but schools mayreview all your scores and make inferences if there were any outliers. For example, if you take the SATthree times and get composite scores of 2250, 1900, and 2300, most schools will use 2300as your "official" SATscore, but they may wonder why you got a 1900for one test. One outlier score will usually have a small, if any, impact on your application, but it's still important to never blow off an SATjust because you think schools will only look at your best score. As mentioned above, schools that allow Score Choice only see the scores you send them, so you can take the SATseveral times and only send your highest scorein order for that to be the only resultsthey see. The next sections give more recommendations on howyou can use school score policies toplan and improve your SATpreparation methods. Can You Take the SATas Many Times as You Want? Now that you know that schools will useyour best SATscore, either by using superscoring or highest sitting, does that mean you can take the test asmany times as you want in order to maximize your chances of getting a high score? Technically, yes. You can sign up for the SAT as many times as you want, and schools will continue touse your best score from those tests, whether by using superscoring or highest sitting. However, it is possible to take the SAT too many times. In general, we recommend not taking the SAT more than 5 or 6 times. Taking the SATmore than 6 times maycause schools to think you don’t take the test seriously or can't figure out how to improve your score. It can also becomevery stressful and time-consuming,not to mention extremely expensive because you have to keep paying to take the SATand to send your scores to schools. Taking the SATas many times as you can is a particularly bad idea if one of yourschools requires All Scores sentbecause itincreases the chance of you having an off-day and getting a lower than usual score, which those schools will see and can possibly hurt your chances of being admitted. Instead of taking the SATas many times as you can, you should instead look at your test prep methods and how effective they are. Is your studying targeting and improving your weak areas? Are you learning what mistakes you make and how to avoid them? By putting time and effort into studying effectively, you will be able to reach your target SATscore more easily than simply taking the SATover and over.In general, we recommend taking the SAT 2-3 times to get your best score, regardless of whether the schools you’re applying to use superscoring or highest sitting to determine your best score. Taking the SAT many times can be exhausting. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! How Can You Use Score Policies to Improve Your SATPrep? If you know which schools you want to apply to, you can learnwhichscore policies they use and use that information to help guide your test-taking strategy. If the schools you’re applying to use superscoring, then you can maximize your superscore by studying for and gaining a strong score in one SATsection at a time.For a more in-depth explanation of this strategy, check out our guide on how superscoring can affect your test strategy.If a school uses highest sitting, then you should continue to study each section of the SATin order to maximize your composite score. For schools that require All Scores sent, you will want to make sure you are well-prepared each time you take the SAT. Those schools will see all of your exam scores, so you don’t want one bad test day to hurt your college applications. You will also want to keep studying for each section of the SAT, even if you are only trying to improve your score in one specific section. You don't want scores from your other sections to drop on a retake. As mentioned above, evenif the schools you’re applying to allow superscoring orScore Choice, you should always take the SATseriously.A very low score canbe a red flag to schools, and it’s a waste of your time and money. Conclusion Most students take the SATmultiple times, and schools have different policies for reviewing multiple test scores. Most schools don't require you to send scores from all the SATsyou took. Score Choice is a way for you to choose which SATresults you want schools to see. If you send multiple SATscores, schoolswon’t average them, but instead will useone of two methods to determine your "best score." Some schools combine your highest section scores from multiple tests into a Superscore. This is known as Superscoring. Other schools look at your highest score from a single test date. Knowing which scoring policy schools use can help you structure your test prep and test-taking strategies to maximize your SATscores for college applications. What's Next? First, what’s a good SATscore? Read our article on good, bad, and excellent SATscores so you can identify and prepare for your target score. Using practice SAT tests to study?Check out our guide on how to get the most realistic SAT practice testing experience to help raise your scores. Want to learn ways to boost your SAT score? Learn the 15SAT tricks you should be using. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today: Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Christine Sarikas About the Author Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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