<p>Major family issues are making it hard to do as much research on this testing stuff as I'd like, so I could use some help.</p>
<p>When schools look at scores, do they break it down this way: "Well, student got 800W/800CR/600M first time, then got 700/700/800 second time, so we'll count her scores as 800/800/800"?</p>
<p>Also, how "important" is the writing result? DD was sick the day of the March test but still wanted to take it. She got a 740CR, 670M (kinda low for her) and a 12 on the essay.</p>
<p>Any help very much appreciated--bless you all and good luck in your quests.</p>
<p>They only take the highest score for every subsection, although some colleges only use the highest test score by date, but it is rare.
Lets say that youre D got
800/800/600
and then she got
600/600/800
they would count it as a
800/800/800</p>
<p>SOME schools care less about the writing section than others. MIT will likely care less if she is going there to be an engineer than say AMHERST if she is going to study the humanities. M +V combined is generally much more important but WRITING does count.</p>
<p>CONGRATS on the 12 essay–they are quite rare. BUT You did not say what her TOTAL writing score was–just the essay?</p>
<p>Of course, this is reiterating the above a bit, but the best way to be sure is to check with the school, especially smaller schools that don’t publicize their practices quite as much.</p>
<p>In terms of examples, USC is happy to combine your best individual scores and review your superscore. However, the UC school system, i.e. UCLA, UC Berkeley, etc. will only look at full, one-time sittings. Meaning a January breakdown of 700/700/800 would be considered over a March breakdown of 800/800/500 and they would not combine.</p>
<p>The 12 on the essay is impressive and continuing the above thought, the UC school system evaluates the writing score very highly and in fact they had threatened the college board with no longer accepting the SAT unless a writing section was added.</p>
<p>Hope this helps and good luck with the admissions process!</p>
<p>DCMom and ExpectSuccess, thank you both for your good info and wishes. I am tickled to report that with the 12 essay she got an 800 on the writing–the 740 R and 670 M (2210 total) may go up on her June retest. She was sick the day she took the test in March. </p>
<p>We’re from NYC, but she’s Stanford/Pomona/anywhere-in-California-happy, so she wants to retest.</p>