<p>At the bottom of the ACT report is a combined English and Writing score. For both tests my D took, the combined score was no different from the English score. Do some people's scores change when the two are lumped together? Otherwise, I see no point for the combination. Confused.</p>
<p>Her April score was 34/8. Her June score was 29/10. </p>
<p>If anything, I would have thought that the 10 would bump the 29 up?</p>
<p>I am surprised to see an 8 in essay that did not make the combined English/Writing score lower than the English score. My D got 36 in English with 8 in essay leading to a 32 in Eng with Writing. Are you saying your D got 34 n Eng and still 34 in combined Eng/Writing with 8 in essay? With essay score at 10, it probably would not impact an Eng score of 29 though.</p>
<p>I’m wrong, the 8 did lower it to a 31 in the combined section on the bottom. Overall on that test she had a 31, with or without the 8, so that’s what didn’t change.</p>
<p>I’m still confused: How is the combined score of the English and Writing calculated? Does the new score even matter? If colleges (and some she is applying to do superscore the ACT) superscore the tests, does she still get to keep her 34, and call it a 34/10? After all, if she took the test without writing, her English score would be 34.</p>
<p>Honestly, it seems so bogus. Her scores range from pretty good to very good. How is this really helpful to a college? It’s not. I guess all it is saying is “don’t worry, this kid will be fine.”</p>
<p>The SAT writing score combines an essay and multiple choice section, so I think the ACT provides a combined score so schools can easily compare SAT & ACT writing. </p>
<p>It generally does change the score. I received a 32 on English, 9 on writing, and 30 on combined. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if this holds water on other scores, but I tried it with mine and the math worked out. Since the writing score is out of 12 and everything else was out of 36, I multipled my writing score by 3 (to get 27) and then averaged my English and new Writing score, and got 29.5 which would be rounded to 30. </p>
<p>So not sure if multiplying writing by 3 and averaging with English score is the formula they use, or if it just happened to work out on mine, but you can try it with your score!</p>
<p>Maybe you are correct, because 3X10 is 30, so the average is 29.5, and they gave her a 29. But does this really make sense. A 10 is still in the 99%, so it doesn’t seem right to only call it a 30. </p>
<p>I know this doesn’t matter that much, I’m just curious.</p>
<p>@Baileyj57 - What counted for your composite? The combined 30 or the 32 on Englush only.
Thanks !!</p>
<p>Different schools would look at the scores in a different way. Stanford would look at the best single sitting composite and the best English with writing. Many school don’t look at the English with writing at all but just the composite and individual sections. Similarly, many schools don’t look at the SAT writing score either.</p>
<p>@baileyj57 That idea did not hold for my son’s score. I think they weigh the English more so the two are not equal in the combined score.</p>
<p>@Heythere7 The English only (32 for me) is what counts for your composite. Combined is just an extra score.</p>
<p>[Writing</a> | How to Calculate Your Combined English/Writing Score | ACT Student](<a href=“ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT”>ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT)</p>
<p>^ Still not sure how they calculate it though</p>
<p>It does not seem to be a simple formula.</p>
<p>So that combined English/Writing score really seems to mean nothing at all, if what Bailey says is true. Why do they even bother combining them? </p>
<p>Do you know where you read that? So my kid can keep her 34 and her 10 for schools that superscore the ACT.</p>
<p>Can you tell by doing simple average of the 4 session score to get the composite score? The composite score does not use the writing score, but some schools like Stanford would look at the combined writing score separately. By the way, most schools do not superscore ACT. Stanford would look at the best single sitting composite and the combined writing scores separately (i.e. can be from different test date). While many other school would only look at single sitting score with writing included, so even you get a much higher composite in ACT without writing, it may not help.</p>