At the risk of sounding obnoxious, should my son retake the ACT with a composite score of 35 ? (E- 36, M - 31, R -36, S - 35). Obviously this is a fantastic score and I can’t believe I’m even asking the question BUT he uncharacteristicly didn’t finish the math section and that score is definitely lower than his capabilities. My question is, will schools question his abilities with such a disparity in scores or does the composite score stand on its own? He is only a junior so has plenty of time to retake but I also see the value in taking this pressure off his plate completely. I’m definitely in need of outside perspective. Thank you!
It seems that top colleges look at the subscores and If he is going to be a math or science major?, unfortunately I would then be inclined to take it again and focus on taking a lot of timed Math practice tests so he completes the section on time. He is only a junior and has plenty of time to get his score up. If he gets a 35 or better he super scores to 36 which would be awesome.
Consider taking an SAT subject test Math II. Also, AP tests in math such as Calculus & Statistics.
He is undecided on major but he is drawn towards humanities/liberal arts. I could see him pursuing economics however, so the math score could still be problematic. He is only in regular Precal so AP tests won’t help him. Math II is an interesting idea…low risk/high reward.
Sorry but how do you have a 35 composite. It doesn’t compute to me but maybe I’m missing something.
“To recap, we know that you get a score of between 1 and 36 for each subject area, which is converted from your raw score. But how do those four area scores combine to your final composite score?
Your composite score is simply the average of your four area scores, rounded up to the nearest whole number (half a point or more is rounded up, less than half a point is rounded down).
For example, say you got a 24 on the Math section, 23 on Science, 26 on Reading, and 25 on English. Your composite score would be:
(24 + 23 + 26 + 25) / 4 = 24.5”
@privatebanker
E- 36, M - 31, R -36, S - 35
36+31+36+35 = 138/4=34.5=35
Ah. Forgot the rounding up.
Thank you.
To answer the op. Yes. I would retake if you have any interest in sciences and you are talking about your reach schools.
I’ve seen adcom meetings where the section score is discussed. Especially at the final cut type discussions.
If he’s looking at a STEM major at top schools, it’s probably worth the effort if he believes he can improve the score. As noted above, the individual scores are what matters when looking at admissions - the composite is a nice one number summary, but not really that useful.