If you or your student has taken the SAT or ACT more than once, you've probably run into two terms that sound similar but mean different things: superscoring and Score Choice. Both terms relate to how multiple test attempts get reported and considered. One of them matters a lot. The other is mostly a feature that exists because it gives families the feeling of control and gives the testing organizations another thing to charge for.
Here's what each one does, what the new ACT changes mean for both, and our take on how much any of this should affect your testing plans.
01Superscoring, briefly
Superscoring is what happens when a college takes your highest section scores from multiple test dates and combines them into a single, higher composite. The student doesn't do anything to make this happen. The admissions office software does the math after the scores come in. Why superscore? It makes schools look better in US News & World Report's rankings.
Here's a quick example: Say a student takes the SAT twice. The first time, they score 640 Math and 560 Reading and Writing, for a total of 1200. The second time, they score 580 Math and 640 Reading and Writing, for a total of 1220. A school that superscores will take the 640 Math from the first attempt and the 640 Reading and Writing from the second, and consider the student's score to be 1280. That's the number that goes into the admissions decision and the one the school reports in its admitted-student profile.
The same mechanic works on the ACT, where the school takes the highest English, Math, and Reading section scores across multiple attempts and re-averages them into a higher composite.
Superscoring is the dominant policy at colleges that consider test scores. Most schools your family is likely to look at, from state flagships like UT Austin to most private universities, superscore the SAT, and a large majority superscore the ACT too. There are enough exceptions that you should check each school's policy, but the default assumption that "this school will superscore" is right most of the time.
02Score Choice, briefly
Score Choice is a College Board feature that lets a student choose which SAT test dates to send to colleges. If a student took the SAT three times, Score Choice lets them send the second and third attempts but withhold the first.
The ACT works a little differently. There's no "Score Choice" feature on the ACT, but each ACT test date is its own separate score report by default. When you order a report, you order it for one specific date. So picking which dates to send is just how the ACT system works. No toggle, no opt-in, no separate feature to enable.
03Use your free reports
Both testing organizations let you designate up to four colleges to receive your score report for free when you register. You can also add or change recipients after you take the test. The SAT gives you nine days after the test date. The ACT gives you until noon Central Time on the Thursday after your Saturday test, which is about five days.
This is the part many students don't take advantage of, usually because they're nervous about committing to send a score before they know what it is. That nervousness is mostly misplaced. A free practice test under realistic conditions tells you with reasonable confidence where your actual score is going to land. If the test felt similar to the practice, send your free reports during the post-test window. If something genuinely catastrophic happened on test day, you'll know within those few days and can hold off.
Most of the time, none of that happens. Most of the time, the test felt about how the practice felt, the score lands roughly where you expected, and the free reports are the cleanest and cheapest way to get your scores to your schools. Skipping the free reports because you're hoping Score Choice will let you cherry-pick later is how most students end up paying for sends they could have had for free.
04What if you didn't use your free reports? Or need more?
Then you're paying to send scores. The College Board charges about $14-15 per report per college. The ACT charges $19 per report per college, plus a $30 archive fee for any test taken more than three years ago. For a student applying to eight colleges, this adds up.
Here's how to think about it once you're in that position. There are three scenarios.
The school superscores
For the SAT, use the Score Choice feature to send only the test dates that contain your highest section scores. If you took the SAT three times and your highest Math came from the second attempt and your highest Reading and Writing came from the third, send those two dates and skip the first.
For the ACT, this is where the official Superscore report becomes useful. Rather than sending multiple individual reports, you can request the official Superscore report from MyACT (one report, $19 per school) and let the ACT bundle your best section scores into a clean single document. Make sure that the school you're applying to accepts Superscore reports!
The school doesn't superscore
Send your single best sitting and skip the rest. Non-superscoring schools take your highest single-date composite and ignore the others, so there's no reason to send the lower dates. This works the same way on the SAT and ACT.
The school requires all scores
Send everything. This is the most expensive scenario, but it's also the simplest: order reports for every test date and send them all. The schools in this category aren't using your lower scores to disqualify you. They're checking for anomalies, things like suspicious patterns or scores that don't match the rest of your file, and confirming the picture you've presented in your application. One note: taking the test five or more times with little improvement can start to look like score-shopping, and that's a pattern that can leave an impression on a reader. For students who test two or three times with normal patterns of improvement or plateau, lower scores really aren't held against them. Send the reports, and don't panic.
05Texas schools
Many colleges let you self-report your scores on the application itself. On the Common App or Coalition App, you enter your highest section scores by date, and official reports from the College Board or ACT only come into play after you've been admitted and committed to enroll. That's essentially self-applied superscoring, and it happens before any official report ever lands on an admissions officer's desk.
The big exception in Texas is the state university system. UT Austin and Texas A&M both require official score reports sent directly from the testing agency during the application phase. Check with specific schools for details. If you used your free reports at registration, that's already covered. If you didn't, this is where the costs we discussed above start to add up.
06The new ACT wrinkle
There's one piece of the 2026 landscape worth knowing. Starting in September 2025, the ACT made its Science section optional, and the composite score now reflects only English, Math, and Reading. The ACT's own superscore reports also only superscore those three core sections going forward.
This raises a question we don't yet have a clean answer to: how will individual colleges handle the Science score (or its absence)? Most colleges have stated that they don't use the Science score. A few, including Georgetown and Boston University, have indicated they still want students to take Science, or that it's "strongly recommended." Our recommendation is to take the Science section, unless you're sure that none of the colleges on your list require it.
07Should you take the test again?
The answer is almost always yes.
A lot of students score higher on a second attempt. Some of that is the familiarity of having taken the test once. Some of it is targeted prep between attempts. Some of it is just a better day. We see students improve on the second sitting all the time.
We're a little skeptical of the "target your weak section on the retake" advice that gets thrown around in test prep circles. It sounds reasonable, but it doesn't usually match what actually happens. Here's the counter-intuitive part: it can be easier to see improvement in a section you're already good at than in a weak section. You already have the underlying skills and instincts in your strong section, so additional preparation often translates more cleanly into points. The better strategy is usually to prepare across the whole test, take it again, and see how you do.
Generally, though, there's no scenario where a non-excessive retake hurts you, assuming the time and effort are available.
08What this means in practice
Things to remember:
- Use your free score reports. The fear of committing scores before you see them keeps students from saving money they didn't have to spend. A practice test under realistic conditions gives you the confidence to send free reports without flying blind.
- Take the Science section on the ACT, even though it's now optional.
- Plan on taking the test twice. Most students improve on a second attempt, and every school will use the higher number, whether through superscoring or by taking your highest single sitting.
If you'd like help thinking about retake strategy, target scores, or what your current scores actually say about where to focus next, get in touch with us or call (214) 295-8265. We're happy to talk it through.
