I just took my first SAT, and I think I did well on the reading, writing, and math portions, but not on the writing. I sort of put off studying for the essay portion because I did not have a real starting point to jump off from. I decided to just focus on the other sections. I now feel like I will regret it if I apply to colleges that use all scores rather than a score of my choice.
According to my research, colleges that require all of my SAT scores will weigh all of my scores and consider my highest and lowest, but colleges that superscore require all SAT scores but only look at your highest SAT scores in each portion. Let's say if I get a 5/4/4 on the essay portion, but improve to a 7/7/7 in the end. How will that affect my standing for a college that superscores and for the college that looks at all scores? Will it make a great impact on my chance of admission?
I heard the colleges that superscore have a computer that filters out the lower scores to recalculate the new score. Only colleges that superscore have that. The ones that look at all the scores will see the 5/4/4 essay.