On my best ACT composite score, I did the worst on the writing portion. If there’s no way to send without the essay, will schools that don’t require essay still look at them and punish me for this low score and decreasing trend?
If colleges superscore will they still see and take into account my lower scores and count it against me?
Would it make sense if a college superscores to send my March, April, and June scores, and for colleges that don’t to send my June score? Or which test dates would be more to my advantage? (I’m especially worried about the 7 I received on the June test date but received the highest composite on…would the April one be better?)
And if I want to improve my ACT or subject test score after submitting my application, will colleges still accept those scores and look favourably upon them?
This is my ACT Testing History:
Eng M R S W Composite
31 34 24 28 9 29 Dec 2016
31 30 33 32 - 32 Mar 2017
33 32 28 34 8 32 Apr 2017
35 36 32 30 7 33 Jun 2017
@sweetmint this seems to be an issue in general with the ACT. My child did simiar to you getting a great composite on first sitting, but low essay score. Most of my childs schools do NOT look or require writing, BUT it is on the report (there is no way to “erase” the score when sending to scores that don’t require writing). Now, my child is considering taking the test again…only for purposes of getting the writing up. Most of the counselors told him NOT to retake the test even with a low writing score because the colleges are not really considering it even if they say they require it.
I, personally, would not retake the ACT…your time is spent better elsewhere. For schools that you can send whatever you like (AND THEY DON"T REQUIRE WRITING), I might just send the June one. For the schools that superscore, that I am not sure of and of course, there will be schools that require all test scores so you have no choice. I think the June 2017 is a great composite and don’t worry about the writing.
Thank you for your feedback! So are you saying even if colleges require the ACT with writing, they still don’t look at the writing score that much? And what if they don’t require it? Will they take the poor writing scores and have that effect me negatively?
@sweetmint From what I hear and have read, the colleges that require the ACT with writing will look at it…but I don’t think it carries that much weight. I am sure each college views this differently. As a trend, colleges are moving away from the writing. If they don’t require it that is a different story. From what I read - for example - UVA does NOT require the writing. So when the ACT is sent, and if it has writing, those scores are not captured in their system…in otherwords, they say that they don’t see. I spoke myself with an Ivy and they said they don’t look…but it is hard to ever know if the score is on the report sent, who really looks or doesn’t or if it truly has any effect. I think concentrating on the rest of your application - essays and recs, might be the course of action to take.