Hi, I got a 34 composite with 31 Math, 34 Reading, 33 Writing, and 36 Science subscores but only a 2050 on my sat with 680 for CR and Writing and 690 for Math. I retook the SAT this march and was wondering whether I should only submit my ACT score to colleges if I do not do better, and retake the ACT to improve math. Would submitting a lower SAT score hurt me?
Thanks
Looks like the ACT is more your type of test. Unless you’re required to submit everything, I’d definitely only show them the better score.
@bodangles Thanks, I was thinking the same thing but had heard some colleges prefer SAT scores. I guess it’s all the same.
Colleges universally claim that if you send both SAT and ACT, they will use that test they believe is the higher to determine admission, i.e., lower scores are not held against you. The exception to that is that at least two colleges superscore the combined tests: Rose Hulman and Georgiua Tech will use that SAT math or ACT math that is higher, combined with that SAT reading or ACT English that is higher, and for Gtech combined with that SAT writing or ACT combined English/writing score, to detemrine admission, both ignore the ACT reading, science and composite and Rose Hulman also ignores the SAT writing and ACT combined English/writing and essay
Thus, if you believe what colleges say, sending both will not hurt you. There are some colleges, Stanford, Upenn, and Georgetown among them, that rerquire you to submit as part of the application both all SAT and all ACT test scores you have, and thus withholding scores from those colleges would be contrary to their application requirements.
However, even for colleges that allow you to send one or the other, your conclusion that the ACT is better than the SAT may not necessaraily be correct for all of them. There are a number of colleges that consider the math and English sections of the ACT to be the most important. Your ACT math score , in particular, and English score to some extent are really not significantly higher than your SAT math and reading scores, according to concordance tables that you find online (and I am assuming that what you call your “writing” ACT score is actually your English section score). Moreover, those conversion tables that you find online are now over 7 years old and have not been updated with more recent data, and though they provide a guideline, they do not necessarily tell you what any particular college may consider to be comparable scores from the two tests, and many of them do use more recent data to make that comparison. In other words, unless you can actually determine that one score will be considered better by the colleges to which you are applying, you may want to consider sending both and let them decide which is better.
@drusba Thanks! I appreciate the detailed response. I understand what you are saying and that’s what I was considering. But I could retake the ACT and improved on the math and English/writing which I think is totally possible because the main ones I skipped on math were precalculus problems that I had no knowledge of. If I don’t do better on the ACT I’ll just submit both, if I end up significantly better I’ll witholf the Sat is what I think illogical gather from this. Thanks again I really appreciate it!