Why Don't they Just Add up the ACT sub-sections!!??

<p>AM I GOING CRAZY HERE? am i the only one who cant understand why the ACT DOESNT JUST ADD UP THE SUBSECTIONS? Why is it ok for the SAT and not the ACT?</p>

<p>If I get a
35 Eng 35 Read 31 Math and 28 Sci = 129 Total / 4 = 32.25 rounded = 32</p>

<p>and you get a
33 Eng 33 Read 31 Math and 29 Sci = 126 Total / 4 = 32.5 rounded = 32</p>

<p>i dont get it. They dont do that with the SAT's - there is no reason to avg. Why not just say I got a 129 on the ACT and you got a 126? why pretend we got the same score?</p>

<p>it just seems flawed, and this is just some late night bored ranting. Any comments?</p>

<p>Yeah, take your 32 and quite crying. The ACT is a way better test than the SAT. Fundamentally, there is a much higher correlation between success in school and high scoring on the ACT. SAT cares about tricking you and making you look stupid with rediculous "gotcha questions." The ACT is a fair test that incorporates material actually discussed in school, what a novel idea.</p>

<p>hey hey whoa no ones crying --- why do you need to talk like that?. and im not saying anything about the actual tests of the ACT or the SAT, personally i liked the ACT better also, like you. Im just saying, why not just add up all the points you got to get your score? its not that complex of an idea. Why do you need to take an average and then round? its just less accurate. why not average all the SAT scores and then round to nearest 650, 700 or 750? Because it doesnt make sense.</p>

<p>Did you try researching the topic?</p>

<p>I think I understand the concern. If the ACT added the scores, then the colleges that "superscore" the SAT (take the best numbers from different sittings) could also do that for the ACT. My son would love to be able to take his math ACT score from his first sitting.</p>

<p>Some schools, such as Wash U., do openly take the highest subscores from different ACT sittings. (I think Barnard might also do this, but that isn't going to be of much help to your son!) Others, while they don't admit that they mix and match, do say to go ahead and submit more than one ACT sitting if there are discrepancies between high subscores, and they'll take it all into consideration, whatever that means. Given the extent to which the whole admissions game seems to be geared to US News and World Report rankings, it really is in colleges' best interest to combine applicants' highest ACT subscores in order to demonstrate the great stats of their applicant pools and incoming classes. This leads me to believe that if you submit more than one sitting, the colleges really will pay attention to the best subscores.</p>

<p>Actually, ACT wouldn't have to start doing this.... colleges could just start doing this themselves. If colleges started the trend, ACT would probably begin cooperating.</p>

<p>nester,</p>

<p>having been through this process before, i am inclined to think you've hit the nail on the head.
the adcoms can also completely disregard a standardized test if they see what they want to build their community.</p>

<p>All colleges would have to do is to start ignoring the composite score (and stop reporting that number in the 25/75 section). They could begin just focusing on the sub scores and then reporting the 25/75 of THOSE numbers. Then "superscoring" would work for the SAT. Otherwise, they would have to recompute composite numbers (which is totally unnecessary).</p>