Retakes and Superscoring -- Should I retake?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hey ya'll,</p>

<p>I'm a junior who just finished her first two serious tests--ACT and SAT.
I got a 36 composite with an 8 writing subscore (32 combined english/writing) and a 2320 on SAT (730 CR, 800 M, 790 W with a 10 essay score).</p>

<p>I'm very happy with my perfect composite score, but my essay is dismal in comparison. </p>

<p>I didn't study for my ACT at all because I wasn't expecting my first sitting to be anything phenomenal, and my essay score reflects that--I'm now torn between retaking ACT to get a better essay score and thus a stronger superscore and settling for submitting SAT as well to prove that I can in fact write competently. It'd be nice to be done with testing this early but I really don't want to be at a disadvantage against people who take the tests multiple times...</p>

<p>What is your advice/opinion? I'm aiming for ivy leagues and Stanford, Rice, Duke and am interested in STEM. </p>

2

<p>No one really cares about that essay score. Congrats on the 36! The testing is over for you now, so you can focus your energy on things like your extracurricular activities and grades, to ensure you have a lot to go with the awesome score. If you are really worried about demonstrating writing skills, keep in mind they will see your essays on the college application, and they can figure out a lot about your writing ability based on your grades in language arts, etc. They don’t need that little essay subscore to know you’re a great writer. </p>

3

<p>Yeah if you’re interested in stem then don’t worry too much about the essay score. Maybe send both the act and sat scores if you think it’d give you an edge. YOUR SCORES ARE AMAZING. You’ll definitely get into a good school </p>