The Standardized Assessment Testing (SAT) is one of the most important moments and tests for American students. The test analyzes a student’s reading, grammar, and math skills. Although colleges are beginning to make the SAT optional, it’s still a good representation of the students’ achievements. There are two ways to submit scores to colleges: raw score or a super score. A super score is the sum of the highest score from someone’s writing and grammar section and highest score from their math sections. However, they would get it from two different test attempts.
Say someone gets a 1050 the first time (650 in reading and 400 in math), then the second time they get a 1130 (520 in reading and 610 in math). They can take the 650 in reading from their first try and the 610 in math on the second try and super score, ultimately getting a 1260. Super scores can boost someone’s score either by a lot or only by a couple, but most of the time it affects. Fortunately, most colleges get super scores.
Most of the Ivy League and genius schools like Cornell, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Stanford, and Yale take super scores. It’s mostly small private colleges that don’t allow this but the only big colleges on that list are Arizona State, Penn State, Oregon State, Ohio State, and West Virginia University (lots of state colleges). If someone ever needed to check if the college they desire allows super scoring, all they need to do is visit Big Futures, search their college, click on applying, and look for application requirements. Regardless of whether a college accepts super scores or not, it’s highly suggested that students should take the SAT.
If the student has a low GPA, getting a good test result on the SAT shows colleges how much someone has achieved academically through high school. Students are also eligible for scholarships through their result. There is a part of the SAT called the Student Search Service, where students can consent to their scores being public to colleges and being notified of the scholarships they are eligible for.
Whether a student takes the SAT or not, it’s good to understand how to use it to its potential. Even though many colleges have become test optional or test blind, most colleges want to see their outcome of the SAT and having a strong test score can establish a strength in their application and higher chances of being accepted. Although there is debate generating how well the SAT represents a student’s knowledge, it can represent many other things about a student.
Kate Prentice // A&E Editor
