Questions About ACT Scores

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

I emailed Duke and they said they will take the highest score of each section, regardless of test date. However, I have a question about that…

My best ACTs are:

  1. 27 Composite (February) E: 26 M: 28 R: 26 S: 27
  2. 29 Composite (September 8) E: 31 M: 31 R: 22 S: 30

So obviously, I did worse in reading, so they will look my February reading score and superscore that with my other best scores. So my superscore would be a 30. My question is, will they look at my 22 reading ACT score and frown upon it? I’ve always been bad in the reading section.

Also, I’m taking the October 27 ACT and I have been practicing a lot and should increase overall a lot. Should I even send in my February score or just hope that I improve a lot on this October test?

2

hope u improve a lot cause neither of those scores r getting u into duke, sorry for being straight but these scores need to improve greatly or u have no shot unless your parents donated thousands of dollars

3

Duke will tell you that they consider the highest score from each section regardless of date but that they do NOT superscore/re-calculate the ACT composite. What that means in practice, I’m not 100% sure, but that’s their line. I would see what happens in October before assessing which scores to send/not send. I would agree that almost always those scores would not get you into Duke unless you have a hook (URM, athlete, big donor, etc.), but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Good luck!