As the title states. I plan on retaking the ACT to get a 34 or higher, but do colleges really maximize on the difference between a 33 and 34?
Every point matters. And even though your composite score for you next text might not change, your individual scores will. Let’s say that you have a 35 in Math/Science and 31 in Writing/Reading and your composite score turned out to be 33. So you take it again and this time get 31 in Math/Science and 35 in Writing/Reading. Your composite score will not change, but your super score will. So they will take the 35s from your first time and the 35s from your second time so that your superscore would be 35.
Taking it again and see if you could especially approve of the scores you didn’t do well on. Even a 34 or 35 will make all the difference.
Parent here. I agree with @ObitoSigma . This is especially true if you are applying to schools that don’t make you submit every test score, and trebly true if you plan to apply to a school that superscores.
Most students will improve on their score on a second taking, although it is less likely for higher scores. Once you reach the very high score range, luck becomes a bit of a factor, in that you will tend to make a high score on a subsection on one test but not another. So it’s a little like playing a slot machine. Pull the lever enough times and hopefully you’ll score high on all your subscores at the same time and hit the jackpot.
Disagree partially with the above comments…“even a 34 or 35 will make all the difference.” I really doubt it.
While there is a difference between a 33 vs. 34 vs. 35 etc., it’s pretty small. Not many schools officially super-score the ACT, but many do look at both the highest composite and the highest subtest scores. I would only retake if you feel you can score a 35 with limited studying; if a higher score means hour of studying, focus on other things.
Every point higher makes you more competitive for merit scholarships if you have the GPA to go with the score.
It depends on what colleges and scholarships you are targeting.
Top 15 schools usually have medians of 33 ACT and 75th percentiles of 34, so that’s a significant difference. I would say going from 34 to 35-36 is less of a difference.
My gpa for schools i want to attend are fairly low. I plan on attending in state colleges(CA) so like UC or good CSUs.
However, my gpa is around a 3.6 uc/csu (3.5uw/3.8w) so I kind of need a bump in test scores, but i don’t know by how much.
It depends where you want to go. If you got 33 on your first try and think you can reasonably bring up your scores without going crazy studying, sure. It’s not going to matter a whole lot, but might give you a competitive advantage over another similar applicant. At this point, I think you should focus on other parts of your application like SAT 2s, essays, and ECs. Good luck!
(For reference, I got into Columbia with a 33 ACT, 770 Eng Lit, 800 French. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.)
In almost every case, there is no difference. There are some schools that may have an uptick on an automatic scholarship for another point, but most of those schools are going to admit you either way. Besides, you can get additional money based on the rest of your resume.
Don’t be fooled by the percentile game. Understand the difference between cause and effect. Those scores are not necessary. Once you get past the school’s minimum expectation, they are really focused on the rest of your resume. The reason the top 25% have better scores is that those people also happened to have better results on the rest of their resumes…and there are many of them like you who mistakenly think it makes a difference, so they spend more money and energy getting another point or two when it doesn’t matter. Getting 1 point on an ACT is not going to make the difference for you between getting admitted and getting deferred or declined. Focus on your GPA, volunteering, showing interest, etc.
For UCs without a near perfect GPA, 33 to 36 is the difference between Irvine and UCLA. For the elite technical and engineering schools, you routinely see 35-36 math sub scores. My son elected to retake after getting a 33 composite (31 math, 30 reading) for exactly that reason. He raised those to 36 and 35 respectively which increased his composite to 36. There are definitely limited circumstances when retaking makes sense.
33 is a great score, but it definitely depends on what your subscores are and whether the schools you apply to average or superscore. If it’s a no-harm, no-foul retake, why not? My oldest retook a 33 and got a 34. Youngest retook a 34 and got a 35. And the superscores were even better. But they weren’t applying to Stanford or any other school that requires reporting of all tests.
It is worth retaking if one subscore is out of whack with the average like 27 pulling down your average from a possible 35. However, if your scores are pretty even for 33 (all above 30 for example), then you need more prep for each area and unless you have a specific goal for a specific school in mind, it might not be worth the effort.
With a UC gpa of 3.6, the top UCs are going to be tough. UCB and UCLA show less than 2% acceptance rates for that level GPA so I don’t think and extra ACT point is going to help that much. For some of the others, UCSC (35%) or, UCSB (9%), the acceptance rates are significantly higher but still tough. For the CSU system, you are in a much better position unless you are shooting for engineering at SLO.
Long story short, your test score is awesome and you should be proud. And another point or two probably isn’t going to be enough to make a difference for the top UC schools.
@gluttonforstress
Yes, I know my GPA is rather low. The only UCs I will apply to are UCI and UCR, but my top choices are CSU schools: SDSU, CSULB, and CSUF for kinesiology.
@jasewmine I think it could make a difference. If you think with a little more prep that you can do better, go for it. A 35-36 does open a few more doors for automatic merit scholarships as well.
UCI is at 10% for your GPA range. Riverside is over 50% though. I’m pretty sure the CSU schools are going to roll out the red carpet for you already with a 33. And none of the CA schools have automatic merit. It’s all “holistic” and a shot in the dark. DS and friends have seen that this year. Kids with high stats and great overall records not getting in at all while some lower stat kids are getting in early with Regents scholarships. It’s pretty random and our experience is that the 35-36 kids aren’t getting any extra love.
UCs require that you report every score, so if you do worse instead of better, that could be a problem. Also, sometimes I feel like a higher than 33 might made some schools who protect yield be less likely to admit you rather than more likely, b/c they might assume that you will not attend. I think I would stick with the 33.
I slightly disagree with the comments about extra hours studying. If your problem is a deficient vocabulary, you are in for hours of study with a small shot of improvement. If your problem is you don’t know how to do five math problems in a particular area, you can short that up rather easily. Look at what you missed on your last test.
@gluttonforstress the CSU schools I want to go to seem to be the better ones tho, like SDSU and CSULB and CSUF.