ACT and SAT Scores

The consensus view is that these are important, although Mamlet and VanDeVelde feel the scores "don't count as much as people think they do." There are many reports that admissions departments consider only the highest test results in different test subsections, sometimes called superscore results or superscoring, so if a student takes a standardized test during multiple sittings, for example, admissions officers consider the highest math and verbal scores, regardless of test date. Two sources in the Washington Post suggested that colleges routinely superscore the SAT test but rarely the ACT, possibly because of difficulty processing five separate rounded numbers.