What’s the difference between sub score and super score?
Subscore is the breakdown of each individual section.
For example, “I got a 33 composite, which was made up of a 36 in Math, a 27 in Science…”
“SUB” – think smaller. Each section is a smaller part of the whole thing.
Superscore is something only some colleges do. Instead of looking at your highest single-sitting score, they will look at your highest subscore for each section, no matter what day you took it. This can be to your advantage. I only took the SAT, but it’s comparable. Say I got 800, 690, 800 = 2290 total on one test date (those are SUBscores) and 800, 750, 780 = 2330 total on another. Schools that superscore would notice that although my total score was higher on the second sitting, I actually had one higher subscore on the other day. So they would take the three highest – 800, 750, and 800 – even though those subscores came from different days. That would give me a superscore of 2350.
Thanks so much for your response. I appreciate it. Would you say that more and more schools are super score the standardize scores? Or just a distinct group of colleges?
There is no definitive list of schools that superscore, it is best to check with their websites or call the admissions office.
I have observed an upward trend in this behavior in that last two years.