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Reply to "Taking the SAT/ACT"

For your first question, yes it is a good strategy to try to determine the exam your son fares better on, then focus on that exam and try to improve his score.  For my son, we used a test prep academy that administered both ACT and SAT practice exams, then they determined that he was more adept at the ACT, then we focused tutoring on the ACT only.  It helped a great, great deal and was some of the best money spent - it provided more "return on investment" than his baseball scholarship for sure!

If you just google ACT Superscore or SAT Superscore you'll find plenty of information.   Basically it is a composite score that is made up of the student's best individual section test scores across all ACT or SAT exams (as applicable) that he/she took.  It often results in a higher overall score because you're taking the best score on each individual section from all exams taken.

Some schools have an admissions policy to "superscore" the SAT or ACT.  It is not a formal designation made by the testing agencies, just an institution's choice.  To my knowledge, it has nothing to do with how many times the student took the exam (although by definition you can only superscore if you there is more than 1 test result).

As to timing, generally speaking the sooner the better.  You don't have to report scores unless you want to, so taking it early to see how he fares and to get him acclimated is a good idea.  Also, for baseball recruiting purposes it is good to have test results "at the ready" if any when an interested coach requests them.  So Sophomore year for sure, so you have results by the summer before Junior year.  Then re-take in Junior year to try to increase the score.

Our advice to our son was - don't ask us why - we don't make the rules - but these test results are very important for admission and academic (merit) scholarship purposes.  So let's put a plan in place and let's do formal tutoring to help you get the best score possible.  It worked out well for him.

Good luck!

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