A month and a half ago I got my sat scores back. For the January 2015 sat I got 790 math, 740 reading, 640 writing. My total score is 2170. Today I got back my score from the March 2015. I got 800 math, 640 reading, and 780 writing. My total score is 2220. Between the 2 my superscore is 2320. Will colleges see my sat score as 2320 or 2220? Also, does the massive drop off in reading look terrible? Thank you!
Dpends on college. You have these possibilities:
Minority, but including majority of public universities, use for admission that test with the highest composite score. Those are also divided into those that use the writing section and those that do not. For the ones that use writing, your second test would be used because it has the highest composite. For those that do not use writing, your first test would be used because it has the highest composite when you use only math and reading score.
Majority superscore the SAT, meaning they use the highest section scores from the multiple tests. They also are divided between those that use the writing section and those that do not. For the former you would have that 2320 total score. For the ones that do not use writing, your 800 math and 740 reading would be used for a 1540 out of 1600 score.
Colleges universally claim that they do not use lower scores against you (unless that naturally occurs based on which rule they follow from the above, e.g., for a college that uses writing and uses that test with highest composite, your second test with the lower reading score would be used). Also, even though a college may use that test with the highest composite to determine admission, there may be exceptions within the university, e.g., University of Illinois uses that test with highest combined math and reading scores, but the engineering college will give some consideration to a higher math score from another test; also, some of those colleges may use higher math, reading, or writing scores from another test for course placement purposes after you are admitted.
Thanks. That helps a lot