Superscoring Explained: How Colleges Combine Your Best Section Scores

What superscoring means

Superscoring takes your highest score in each section or subject area, pulled from different test dates, and combines them into one composite instead of using every score from a single sitting. If you scored higher on Math in March and higher on Reading in June, a college that superscores counts both of those highs together, not whichever date had the better overall day.

How ACT calculates its Superscore

ACT builds a Superscore Composite automatically once you have more than one valid test record, averaging your best English, Math, and Reading scores across attempts. Science is no longer part of the Composite as of the Enhanced ACT, it now combines with Math for a separate STEM score. You control which version, a single test date's scores or the Superscore, gets sent to a given college through ACT's score-sending tools, according to ACT .

How SAT superscoring works differently

College Board does not calculate or report an official superscore the way ACT does. Individual colleges that choose to superscore pull your best Reading and Writing score and your best Math score from whichever test dates you send, then add those together themselves. Since College Board is not doing this calculation for you, whether it happens at all depends entirely on the college's own admissions policy.

Superscoring vs Score Choice

Score Choice, an SAT reporting option, lets you pick which full test dates to send to a college, but it does not combine sections across those dates the way superscoring does. Sending one strong date under Score Choice still gives a college only that date's Reading and Writing plus Math pairing.

Superscoring goes a step further and lets a college mix and match your best section from each date you send, so the two work together rather than as substitutes for each other.

A simple example

Say you score 650 Reading and Writing plus 600 Math in the fall, then 600 Reading and Writing plus 680 Math in the spring. Without superscoring, a college using only your higher single-date total counts the spring score, 1280.

With superscoring, that same college combines your best Reading and Writing (650) with your best Math (680), for a superscore of 1330. The 50-point gap in this example shows why checking a college's policy before you decide whether a retake is worth it matters.

Not every college superscores either test

Superscoring is common but not universal. Some colleges superscore both tests, some superscore one but not the other, and some evaluate only your single best test date without combining sections across attempts. Check the testing policy page on each college's admissions site directly, since this detail rarely shows up in general rankings or guidebooks and changes from year to year.

How superscoring changes your retake strategy

If a college on your list superscores, a retake does not need to beat your prior overall score, only your prior score in your weakest section.

This makes focused prep on one or two sections a more efficient use of time than a full re-review of the entire test before a retake. Sending every score you have, rather than holding one back, usually works in your favor at a superscoring college, since the college only counts your highs anyway.

When superscoring will not help you

Colleges that require you to submit all your scores, rather than letting you choose which dates to send, sometimes still consider only your single best sitting rather than combining sections, so superscoring policy and score-reporting policy are two separate things worth checking. A retake also will not help at colleges that consider only your most recent score regardless of history, a smaller but real policy some schools use.

How to check a college's policy

• Search the college's admissions site for testing policy or standardized testing, which usually states superscoring rules directly.

• Look for whether the policy separates SAT and ACT superscoring, since they are not always treated the same at one college.

• Contact the admissions office directly if the policy page does not answer your specific question, especially for scores split across more than two test dates.