ACT & SAT practice scores being reported on HS Transcript

DeVakhan

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My son has applied to all the Academies and prior to sending his scores into the Academies he took several practice SAT's and ACT's. When he was done taking tests, and ready to send in his scores to the Academies he had them send his best scores, which happened to be his SAT's. He only did average on his ACTs, so we decided to focus on his SAT's and he studied for those and did reasonably well. We only told Collegeboard to send in the best combination of SAT scores. We didn't even bother with the ACT scores.

We just had his high school send in his 7th semester HS grades and for some reason the HS is included all his test scores on the transcript. Even the practice ones. We also noticed that one of the Academies picked off his ACT scores off of it and placed them in his file! They were practice, and we didn't even want them up there!

How come the high school included those scores on the transcript without asking us, and how will it affect the board when they meet and judge the applications? Surely seeing average ACT scores will influence them even though he had good SAT scores? I'm not happy about this. Collegeboard asked us what scores we wanted to send, but the H.S. just sent them all..

Any comments, or reassurances would be Greatly appreciated... Thanks!
 
Sounds like a question for the high school. I would call their guidance office and ask.
 
As far as what is already done, I don't think it should hurt your son. The Academies are used to the fact that candidates take these tests multiple times, and they generally only consider the best scores anyway.
 
Correct me if I am wrong... the SAs super score don't they? So even having them all on there shouldn't be an issue, they will take the highest score or combination of scores to complete his file. They take an ACT score and convert it if that is the highest score. I am assuming the school sent them unless you specified to have them removed. But, in the end with super scoring, shouldn't be an issue.
 
They do SuperScore. The SA won't care how low you scored on previous tests.

Though I don't sit on the admissions board, it is not even feasible that those that do will see anything but the numbers that appear in your portal.

They are reviewing 100's of folders and they don't know you from me. Think how ridiculous it even sounds that some O-4 on the board asks for history of other test scores when the school's direction is 'we SuperScore'
 
In this case the would be no history for the ACT. Just the one test he did for practice and only performed average. On his West Point Portal it shows two scores, his highest composite SAT scores, and his only ACT score. That's what prompted me to write here. I know you can translate ACT scores into SAT scores, but I'm not sure if that's what the Air Force does. We didn't even want the ACT scores showing up anywhere. Thx...
 
They will SuperScore the ACT and they will SuperScore the SAT

They will not translate the SAT to an ACT equivelant or vice versa

The board will only see and care about the best SuperScore of either the ACT or SAT

They will not say the best Math score is the SAT and the best English is the ACT
 
They will SuperScore the ACT and they will SuperScore the SAT

They will not translate the SAT to an ACT equivelant or vice versa

The board will only see and care about the best SuperScore of either the ACT or SAT

They will not say the best Math score is the SAT and the best English is the ACT

Thanks, I just wish the ACT scores weren't there in the first place. If for only psychological reasons. Humans being what they are. I just talked to his high school and they said they can delete that information in the future. They were surprised the scores were used anyway, since they weren't sent directly by ACT.
 
Most HS transcripts have official scores listed. It really shouldn't matter much.
 
The only way to take the official SAT as "practice" is to take it prior to 9th grade. Once in high school, all SAT test count. College Boards will let you send only selected scores and many colleges will accept that. Some colleges say they superscore, but they still want to see all tests scores.

When a SA admissions say "You may take these tests several times to try to improve your scores. Your highest scores will be accepted." I have no doubt that is exactly what they do.

IMHO high schools should not list SAT or ACT scores on a transcript, since the school is not administering the testing, and anyone wanting official scores are going to want them from SAT or ACT. My DS HS does not list SAT scores. It is unfortunate that your school does. But it will not matter for his SA application.
 
The only way to take the official SAT as "practice" is to take it prior to 9th grade. Once in high school, all SAT test count. College Boards will let you send only selected scores and many colleges will accept that. Some colleges say they superscore, but they still want to see all tests scores.

When a SA admissions say "You may take these tests several times to try to improve your scores. Your highest scores will be accepted." I have no doubt that is exactly what they do.

IMHO high schools should not list SAT or ACT scores on a transcript, since the school is not administering the testing, and anyone wanting official scores are going to want them from SAT or ACT. My DS HS does not list SAT scores. It is unfortunate that your school does. But it will not matter for his SA application.

Thanks for your reply. As I said earlier, I contacted the school and they said they will remove the scores in the future. Not that it helps in this case.

We felt there is no real practice like the real thing. So, we gave him the opportunity to take it "for practice" and just paid to send the scores he wanted to send. The very fact that some schools want to see all scores confirms my suspicion that while super scoring may be done officially, the other scores could have an impact. If only psychologically.

Thanks!
 
Most high schools do list the ACT and SAT scores on transcripts, basically as a courtesy, since some places will accept that unofficial score. For example, some MOC's will accept just the scores that are reflected on the transcripts. I think it is more common to have the scores on transcripts than not.
 
I wouldn't worry about it, I had a 590, a 630, and a 650 on my SAT's; they were terrible. I did a lot better on the ACT with a 31, but all my scores including the bad SAT's are listed and I still got a LOA. so apparently they didn't care about my low scores
 
How come the high school included those scores on the transcript without asking us,
When you take an ACT test, you have the option to NOT send the scores to the school right away. Once it gets to the school, they do not sort but rather send everything that was tested to date off to the college.

My son took at least 6 tests starting in 9th grade. He didn't send any to his HS until he wanted to. The only down side is ACT charges money to send the score later which is nominal. When you sign up for the test online, it gives you that option to send it to your HS.
 
When you take an ACT test, you have the option to NOT send the scores to the school right away. Once it gets to the school, they do not sort but rather send everything that was tested to date off to the college.

My son took at least 6 tests starting in 9th grade. He didn't send any to his HS until he wanted to. The only down side is ACT charges money to send the score later which is nominal. When you sign up for the test online, it gives you that option to send it to your HS.

I didn't have ACT send scores. That was the whole point. Apparently High Schools automatically get scores for SAT and ACT. My son's school decided to include all those scores on his transcripts. They deleted them now, but the cat is already out of the bag, so to speak.
 
I didn't have ACT send scores. That was the whole point. Apparently High Schools automatically get scores for SAT and ACT. My son's school decided to include all those scores on his transcripts. They deleted them now, but the cat is already out of the bag, so to speak.
I understood what you wrote. I will try be clearer. :) By default, the ACT test automatically sends the scores to the HS. But you may chose NOT to report (both colleges AND the HS). The was the case from 2009-2012. It was talked about here http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...reporting-act-scores-to-your-high-school.html

You have other options (for a fee). You can buy the test and see which ones you got wrong and I highly recommend it.
 
One way or another, I don't think it will hurt for the academy to have the "bad" scores. They disregard the bad scores and only review the best subscores. Moreover, they won't accept unofficial scores regardless, so theose that are reflected on a HS transcript wouldn't make it to the portal even if you wanted them to.
 
Same thing happened with me. I have very strong SAT scores and reported those through College Board. I took the ACT once as a sophomore without studying just to see what it was like. I didn't like the ACT so just focused on SATs.
Moreover, they won't accept unofficial scores regardless, so theose that are reflected on a HS transcript wouldn't make it to the portal even if you wanted them to.
Even though I never officially sent the ACT scores they ARE on my portal because they were on my transcipt. I asked my admissions counselor about it and he said not to worry because admissions would just use my good SAT scores. I really hate seeing the mediocre ACT score on the portal though!
 
Same thing happened with me. I have very strong SAT scores and reported those through College Board. I took the ACT once as a sophomore without studying just to see what it was like. I didn't like the ACT so just focused on SATs.

Even though I never officially sent the ACT scores they ARE on my portal because they were on my transcipt. I asked my admissions counselor about it and he said not to worry because admissions would just use my good SAT scores. I really hate seeing the mediocre ACT score on the portal though!

Hmmm. I stand corrected then. We were told they would not accept anything other than officially sent scores form ACT/SAT.
 
same here - took the ACT once just to give it a whirl - brought the wrong calculator to the test and got a 25 on the math. Did not send scores anywhere. The scores are on his portal at USMMA and USNA. However, his reading score ended up being higher than all of his SAT scores. Go figure
 
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