New ACT Superscore Reporting
Starting with the September 2020 test administrations, ACT is reporting a superscore for students who take the ACT more than once. Superscoring is when you take your highest scores from each section to create a new best score. This gives colleges the option to use your best scores from each section as opposed to the scores from one test sitting for admissions considerations.
The ACT advocates for colleges to use superscores for admissions decisions, as they have done extensive research to suggest that superscores are just as predictive (if not more so) of first-year grades than other scoring methods.
Let’s pretend your exam results are below:
October 2020 exam results
English Math Reading Science Composite
29 26 29 24 27
December 2020 exam results
English Math Reading Science Composite
31 29 22 27 27
ACT Superscore
English Math Reading Science Composite
31 29 29 27 29
If we only look at Composite scores, it looks as though you didn’t improve from the October test to the December test. However, the superscore pulled your highest English, Math, and Science scores from the December exam and your highest Reading score from your October exam. Because of this, you gained two composite points, making your total composite score a 29.
While this doesn’t change individual school policies on accepting superscores, it does remove the financial burden of sending multiple score reports to each school in order to demonstrate your superscore. Let’s do the math as an example. ACT charges $13 per college to send individual test scores. Before the new superscoring rollout, if you took the ACT three times you would have to spend $39 per college to send those three score reports. With ACT moving to superscore reporting, you can wait until you’ve taken multiple tests to send out your one superscore and thus save $39 - $13, or $26 per school. As many students apply to 8 (or more) schools, this could add up to significant savings for you depending on how many schools are on your list.
See below for examples of the ACT score reports, pulled from the September ACT announcement:
Your score from your most recent test will be laid out as shown above. By clicking “View Score Details,” you can get a score breakdown by subject area, send this score report to colleges, and compare your scores with the national benchmarks.
If you have taken the ACT more than once, your report will show the combined superscore at the top along with details on which test administration the superscore pulled from. The ACT Superscore section will remain blank until you’ve taken a second official test.
While the superscore reporting started with the September 2020 exams, the option to submit your superscore will be rolled out in October. This also supports ACT’s effort to roll out individual section retakes in 2021, which would apply the best individual section scores towards a student’s superscore.
