<p>We compare our kids' SAT scores as a total out of 2400, to a college's reported average SAT score for incoming freshmen; are colleges taking the average of each individual score, and then adding them, or are they reporting an average total score? I would expect that the former would be higher.</p>
<p>Doing what you stated isn’t necessarily ‘superscoring’. If the college only accepts the SAT scores from a single sitting, i.e. not the superscore method of taking the highest sections from multiple sittings, then I don’t see how there’d be any significant difference between the college summing the average of the components rather than just averaging the already summed number (2400). </p>
<p>If the college accepts the scores from multiple settings and superscores then this should already be reflected in both the section and final scores so again, doing the averaging of the sections s/b about the same as the summed number.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if the above was very clear.</p>
<p>Do most colleges actually give average scores per section, overall average scores, or even overall median scores? What I generally see are 25-75 percent breakdowns by section. </p>
<p>I think this is more informational anyway, because you never know if that average has been skewed lower by some very low scores below the 25% level, who got in for other reasons.</p>
<p>Edit: Unless you are talking about Naviance. I think they give averages of some type on there.</p>
<p>Of course they do. This is the reason they allow kids to “superscore” in the first place. By saying “We only take into consideration the highest score on each test component,” they give themselves the right to include only the highest score on each test component in their data.</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking, JHS.</p>
<p>Yes, superscoring is one of the tricks that colleges use to raise their reported scores. Going SAT optional is another (they do not have to report scores that they do not see). Keeping the first-year class small and admitting more transfer students is yet another trick.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges superscore (but not all - the UCs, for example, don’t superscore) - my point was that the superscoring will likely already be reflected in both the section scores and the cumulative score so there shouldn’t be much of a difference in the final result whether you were to add up the averages of each section vs. look at a cumulative score where the college already averaged the superscored sections. It’d also already be reflected if looking at the 25-75% averages as one sees on the CDS. </p>
<p>I thought you were asking about that aspect of the math but maybe not.</p>