SAT & ACT Superscoring: A Guide for International Families

For students accustomed to GCSEs and A-Levels, one aspect of US university admissions can seem particularly unusual: students can take the SAT or ACT more than once.  Additionally, 99% of US and European universities either superscore or consider a student's highest sitting in admissions, disregarding the number of sittings. (This may seem surprising to UK families, but the number of sittings does not impact the admissions process at these schools!)

Because the number of attempts is immaterial to nearly all universities, what’s most important is that a student demonstrates the best version of themselves on the test.  This does not mean taking the test as often as possible—there is an opportunity cost and a psychological commitment to preparation, as there is with preparing to do well on anything important. However, it can be worthwhile to sit the test more than once when improvement matters and is a real possibility.

Let’s rewind some and answer an important question: what's superscoring? Superscoring allows applicants to combine their strongest section scores from different test dates.  This superscore becomes the composite score considered in admissions.  Any university that superscores only considers the superscore of the SAT or ACT in its admissions process. Importantly, superscoring is the policy of approximately 85% of US universities;  nearly all of the rest consider the best sitting (in addition, European universities uniformly subscribe to best sitting).

It’s important for international families navigating US and European admissions to understand how superscoring (and best sitting) works, as putting an arbitrary limit on sittings can impose a needless disadvantage.

How Often Can Students Take the SAT or ACT?

Unlike GCSEs and A-Levels, the SAT and ACT are each offered eight times throughout the year.  There is no limit to the number of times a student can sit the SAT; the ACT limits sittings to twelve (though we would not recommend any student takes the ACT twelve times!).

This means your student's first official test does not necessarily need to be their final result. More often than not, the first attempt provides invaluable feedback for improvement.

In most cases, our advice is to first sit the SAT or ACT after three months of preparation.  This provides the opportunity to learn the world of content embodied in the test and to develop clear strategies on how to navigate the problem types and the sections.

What Does Superscoring Mean?

A superscore combines a student's highest individual section scores from multiple official test dates.

For example, imagine a student takes the SAT twice:

The student's score is 1420 on both test dates. But at a university that superscores, the student's 720 Reading and Writing score from May combines with their 740 Math score from March, producing a 1460 superscore.

This is an important distinction for families new to US standardised testing: a student's total score doesn't necessarily have to increase on a later test for the new result to strengthen their application.  (For families applying to Europe, however, it is the composite score of the best sitting that counts, as European universities do not superscore).

Will Universities See Every SAT Score?

No.  Score Choice was enacted for the SAT in 2009.  This policy means that it is entirely the student's right to choose which test dates to share and which to withhold.  College Board--the organization responsible for the SAT--makes it clear that universities and colleges cannot opt out of or reject Score Choice: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/help-center/can-colleges-opt-out-score-choice.

That said, less than 1% of US schools will 'require' a student to submit all test sittings.  These schools aim to gather a fuller profile of a student's performance on the test.

Most importantly, if a school's policy is to superscore or take the best sitting, it is not interested in any scores unrelated to the superscore or best sitting, so there's no reason to submit any test dates that are extraneous to the superscore or best sitting.

What Does Superscoring Mean for Your Student's Testing Plan?

If your student is applying to US or European universities that consider the SAT and ACT, it can be helpful to think about standardised testing as a timeline rather than a single date.

Start early enough to leave room for subsequent sittings if needed. After each test, look beyond the total score and consider the individual sections. Where is your student already performing well? Where is there still room for improvement? And how do the universities on their list evaluate multiple scores?

Taking the test repeatedly without additional preparation is unlikely to produce meaningful improvement. Students still need to use the time between tests to review mistakes, strengthen weaker areas and practise pacing. At some point, most students will reach diminishing returns.

The goal isn't to take as many SATs or ACTs as possible. It's to understand how the US testing system works and build a testing plan that gives your student the right opportunities to demonstrate their strengths.