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My 12th grader will be taking the ACT again in October to see if she can score higher in math (she is taking her 4th math at CC this year through dual enrollment & was proficient in math on Accuplacer, but she is bothered that she scored 4 points less than she wanted). She did really well with the English & essay portion last April. Should I have her take the essay again or skip it? She is applying, in December, to the dental hygiene program at our local CC. So, she won't necessarily need the essay portion scores. She has taken Eng 111 and Eng 112 to satisfy the prerequisites for dental program. Also, when the time comes to send ACT scores, are you able to choose the best scores out of the two times she took the test..? Hope this makes sense. This is my first of three kids, so I am still learning the ins and outs of college & testing. 

Thanks in advance!

 

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Definitely no reason to take the essay portion again. 

Taking the best scores from different tests is called super scoring, and it is strictly up to the school if they do it or not. Either way, all the scores are sent, so they see all of your submitted results even if they super score. It seems to be less common with ACT; not a single school we seriously looked at super scored the ACT. 

Is the program competitive? Where do her current ACT scores place her as far as being competitive? I would ask that specific department if raising her math score would improve her chances. We have found departments to be open and informative about requirements and competitiveness. 

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You can't "cherry-pick" the scores, taking the best in one subject from one test and the best in another subject--but you can choose which schools get which scores (and if you didn't already have the scores sent to her school, you can choose to just have one score sent with ACT--you just go in and pay for that one to be sent if it's after-the-fact.) You can actually delete previous ACT scores if you want--I did that for one of my kids. So, if she gets the score she wants on this one, you could delete the previous one--but that would delete her essay score too, if that factors into your/her decision. It doesn't seem like she'll need it though. 

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On 9/4/2018 at 3:50 PM, katilac said:

Definitely no reason to take the essay portion again. 

Taking the best scores from different tests is called super scoring, and it is strictly up to the school if they do it or not. Either way, all the scores are sent, so they see all of your submitted results even if they super score. It seems to be less common with ACT; not a single school we seriously looked at super scored the ACT. 

Is the program competitive? Where do her current ACT scores place her as far as being competitive? I would ask that specific department if raising her math score would improve her chances. We have found departments to be open and informative about requirements and competitiveness. 

It is very competitive! They only take 12 people each year from our county. She does have all the basic courses out of the way (psychology, English, etc...) She will only have the dental courses to take. The program is based on a point system and I don't see anything about extra points for ACT or SAT scores or that they even look for that. Thank you for the advice!

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23 hours ago, MerryAtHope said:

You can't "cherry-pick" the scores, taking the best in one subject from one test and the best in another subject--but you can choose which schools get which scores (and if you didn't already have the scores sent to her school, you can choose to just have one score sent with ACT--you just go in and pay for that one to be sent if it's after-the-fact.) You can actually delete previous ACT scores if you want--I did that for one of my kids. So, if she gets the score she wants on this one, you could delete the previous one--but that would delete her essay score too, if that factors into your/her decision. It doesn't seem like she'll need it though. 

Thanks for the information!!

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