Does anyone understand if Superscoring only works at the individual subject level, or if it also works at the composite level? I looked in old threads but couldn’t figure it out.
Hypothetical Example:
October SSAT: R700 (80th%) V700 (80th%) Q700 (80th%) TOTAL 2100 (80th%)
November SSAT: R750 (90th%) V650 (70th%) Q720 (85th%) TOTAL 2120 (85th%)
How would they figure out your percentile from a Superscored TOTAL? Or is it only the higher Total score of the 2 tests? I assume the 2170 (superscored) isn’t valid because it mixes and matches subject scores from different test dates.
When Exeter says their SSAT average is 94th percentile, is that from Superscoring? Is it a Median or Mean average?
If anyone knows it would be great to hear from you.
While I am not sure, I think that a lot of the schools just simply look at the raw combined score total (in this case, 2170), and compare that instead. I do believe that these stay more constant than actual percentages throughout the year, so it may actually be a better form of judgement. Again, I don’t really have a clue either, but I feel like that usually ends up working in most cases.
Someone can correct me if I am way off though…
About schools’ SSAT averages, I remember seeing that they are usually medians. However, many schools do not even publish these types of things, so some are just a general consensus.
I don’t think super-scoring was done last year for the SSAT. My hunch is to agree with the above comment @ schools looking at raw combined scores or looking at percentiles. This we did find out - kiddo’s scores (all of them from both times taking the SSAT) were on the student profile for all the teachers to see! That kind of stinks if there is one stinker score (it was due to that Ye Olde English Poem) ~X(
@Golfgr8 Wait, wait, wait, are you saying the schools saw ALL the scores? From ALL takes? Because I took one SSAT without practice just to get a benchmark…I am not prepared to send that score to schools
No…the SSAT does not routinely send all scores. They only send the scores for the test date(s) that the parent indicates on the website. And they will not send a superscore for all the tests taken. This info is on their website.
Hmm… @Altras So you are saying that the SSAT just is not superscored? If that is true, I’m not even sure where this whole idea came from to start. I did suspect that they did not send all scores, as that would totally take away the purpose of re-takes in many cases.
Hi @copii - the school saw all the scores I had SSAT released to them… not to worry…So, if you take the SSAT multiple times but decide you only want to send in results from October (for example) you have a way to do that…we did not automatically have scores sent for both sittings…we choose to have those scores sent… But the strange thing is that as a student at school now the scores are posted in the student online portal - so that the faculty can see kiddo’s SSAT scores. I think that is a bit uncomfortable for some students. We thought only the admissions people saw the scores. So moral of the story is this: Choose wisely what test scores you want shared. Think this is used for class placement by some schools…or who knows…
@coppii To clarify…the SSAT COMPANY does not superscore (i.e. send schools the best math, verbal and reading section scores from all of the tests a student has taken). They will only send the complete score report for each and every test date a student has taken and their parent has released to selected schools. However, it has been suggested that some SCHOOLS will superscore a student, considering a composite of the best section scores (and possibly a total score) from all test results sent to them.
If pursuing a superscore strategy (or hope of doing so), a student presumably has a test result with a good score in one section and a bad score in another, and another test result with the opposite. I’ve always considered it as likely for those reviewing the data to see the bad of that (call it a not-so-superscore) and the inconsistency of a student’s test results, but I fully admit to being no expert on the subject.
FWIW, my son took both the SSAT and the ISEE and sent both results. His relative weakness on the SSAT was the reading section and his ISEE score nicely complemented and contrasted his SSAT result.
@Altras Ohhh… I totally get it now! Thank you so much for the clarification. I believe that it would only be beneficial to do this in very particular situations. I was initially under the impression that it was superscored like the SAT in that you can send the best of each section score, individually. But I see that is not the case.
