Navigating the Test-Optional Landscape: A Guide to Strategic Score Submission

The landscape of college admissions has undergone a significant transformation with the rise of test-optional policies. What was once an exception has now become the norm, with a large percentage of four-year colleges and universities not requiring or even considering SAT or ACT scores for admission. This shift presents both opportunities and challenges for applicants, requiring a strategic approach to standardized test scores.

The Rise of Test-Optional Policies

The increasing prevalence of test-optional policies has sparked debate among educators, admissions officers, and students alike. Critics of standardized tests view this change as a positive step, arguing that these tests create unfair barriers to higher education. Proponents of standardized tests point to validity studies showing that standardized test scores strongly predict college success and the close connection between the skills required on these tests and the skills taught in school.

According to one estimate, somewhere around 80 percent of four-year colleges are either test optional or will not even consider SAT or ACT scores for admission.

Understanding Self-Reporting and Score Choice

With ACT science now an optional section, score reporting mechanics have become more complex. Self-reporting scores has long been a free and convenient option. The policy is now taking on new importance as a way for students to control how their scores are presented. For students applying via the Common App to self-reporting colleges, the process is simpler: just omit the science score.

The Dilemma for Applicants: To Submit or Not to Submit?

Applicants now face the crucial decision of whether or not to submit their scores. Colleges with test-optional policies say that they don’t need standardized tests to determine who will succeed and graduate. Applicants want to know if submitting their scores will help them gain admission. Right now, it’s hard to tell. Applicants who are deciding whether to submit scores need to consider the consequences of submitting-and the consequences of not submitting.

The Perceived Neutrality of Test-Optional Policies

Colleges with test-optional policies typically assert that there is no disadvantage to going test optional. This is something that they have to say, because they’re not really “test optional” if there’s a penalty for not submitting scores. However, applicants may wonder if the decision not to submit scores could be interpreted negatively by admissions officers.

The "Fifth Amendment" Analogy

The decision to withhold test scores can be likened to a criminal defendant's decision to invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify. It’s their right, to be sure, but what inferences can or should we draw from that decision? In real life, juries are instructed not to draw negative inferences from the refusal to testify, and prosecutors aren’t allowed to suggest that criminal defendants who don’t testify are probably guilty for that reason. This is the issue with test-optional policies. Even though admissions officers aren’t supposed to draw negative inferences from the decision not to submit scores, it’s possible that they do.

The Value of Test Scores in the Eyes of Admissions Officers

Admissions officers who don’t believe that the tests provide much value must have an easier time interpreting an applicant’s decision not to submit scores. If test scores are irrelevant, then the decision not to submit them is irrelevant as well. Still, it’s fair to ask what those offices would make of a great score. If bad scores shouldn’t hurt you, why should good scores help you? Isn’t it the same issue?

It’s also possible that some offices are using test-optional policies to de-emphasize standardized tests to promote their concept of social justice, especially after the Harvard University and UNC Chapel Hill cases on affirmative action were decided. In the views of some, test-optional policies could be a way to remove unfair barriers to higher education.

Strategies for Deciding Whether to Submit Scores

Given the complexities of test-optional policies, applicants need a framework for deciding whether to submit their scores.

Read also: Mastering the SAT

The "50-Percent-Plus Rule": A Critical Look

One approach is the “50-percent-plus rule,” which says that if your score is higher than the 50th percentile of admitted students, you should submit it, and if it’s lower than that, you shouldn’t. This makes some intuitive sense: it’s better to be above the 50th percentile than below it. Still, the 50-percent-plus rule doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

For starters, it has a restricted range problem, in that it considers only the people who submitted scores and not the entire pool of applicants, many of whom presumably went test optional because their scores weren’t very good. If your test score is just below the 50th percentile of admitted students who submitted scores, it’s probably much higher than the 50th percentile of applicants in general, and much higher than the 50th percentile of all admitted students, many of whom did not submit scores at all.

Another problem with the 50-percent-plus rule is that it’s unsustainable. If the only applicants who submit scores are people who are above the 50th percentile of last year’s admitted students, then the 50th percentile is going to keep going up every year until virtually no one submits scores. An artificial increase in average scores also sends a misleading message by making it look like our college applicants have skills that they really don’t have.

Considering Relative Position

A more balanced alternative to the 50-percent-plus rule is the “relative position” approach, which considers not just your score but also its relationship to your grade point average. If your GPA and other aspects of your application are stellar, then a mediocre test score could hurt you. But if your GPA is not so great, then a strong test score could help make up for it. For some people, a test score significantly under the 50th percentile of admitted students should still help them if that test score looks better than their GPA might suggest.

Seeking the Benefit of the Doubt

If more than 50 percent of applicants don’t submit test scores at all, then a lot of applicants are burying their test scores to prevent some of their weaknesses from being exposed, and a student who submits test scores might deserve the benefit of the doubt over someone with similar credentials but no submitted test score.

Read also: Comprehensive ACT Guide

The Bigger Picture: The Value of Standardized Tests and Higher Education

All this comes back to the same issue: Do test scores measure anything useful? If they don’t, then we shouldn’t consider them at all. If they do, though, why should we ignore them?

If standardized tests go away, then everything else in the student’s application becomes more important. But is that a good thing? Grade inflation is real. As a result, great grades don’t help you get in, but imperfect grades keep you out. And what about the rest of the application, such as essays, recommendations and work experience? These components are more subjective and potentially even more influenced by economic status. At least with standardized tests, we know who took the exam. With admissions essays, who knows who wrote them?

If tests of basic reading comprehension, writing skills and relatively simple math don’t predict an applicant’s success in college, what does that say about college? How confident are we that college graduates have the kinds of skills that they’ll need to succeed in life? If pressures to maintain enrollment and graduation rates continue, and college becomes more of a customer-based transaction of money and time in exchange for credentials, “success in college” will lose all meaning.

Navigating the Digital Testing Landscape

The SAT and PSAT/NMSQT are now administered digitally, requiring students to use the Bluebook application on their own or borrowed devices.

Preparing for Digital Testing

Device Readiness: Ensure your testing device is running on an approved operating system and that Bluebook is downloaded and functioning correctly. If your testing device is managed by your school, confirm that your school has downloaded Bluebook for you. If you are using your own testing device, you will need to download Bluebook yourself.
Required Materials: Bring your electronic or printed admission ticket to the SAT. You'll show this to the proctor when you check in. A power cord and/or a portable charger. A calculator that meets the requirements located at satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/what-to-bring-do/calculator-policy. Before testing, you will be asked to clear all saved formulas on a calculator you bring. There is also a calculator in Bluebook that you can use instead of bringing your own if you wish. Pen or pencil for scratch work. This pencil does not have to be a No. 2 pencil.
Prohibited Items: Close all applications other than Bluebook before the test begins. You are not allowed to have any other apps running on your testing device during testing. You are not allowed to paste work into Bluebook from another program or application.

Test Day Procedures

Check-in: If you are not testing at a school that you regularly attend, you must bring an acceptable photo ID.
Testing Environment: In your testing room, you will connect to your school’s internet.
During the Test: Bluebook has a timer that will count down the minutes and seconds remaining in each module. You must stay for the full length of the standard time test. Do not close the lid or cover the screen of your testing device until your answers are submitted. If your answers were successfully submitted, you will see a confirmation screen.

Score Cancellation and Disciplinary Measures

Invalid Scores: College Board may cancel your scores if they determine that there is substantial evidence that your scores are invalid. Examples of evidence of Invalid Scores include, without limitation, unusual answer patterns or other evidence that indicates these Rules have been violated.
Misconduct: If College Board determines that there is overwhelming evidence that you did not follow these Rules ("Misconduct"), the Score Validity Process will not be offered to you. Instead, they may cancel your scores and/or take any of the Measures described above. Examples of Misconduct are doing or attempting to do the following: using an answer key, mobile phone, the internet, or an application other than Bluebook; removing the test or answers; disrupting the College Board server or Bluebook through a cyberattack or other activity; duplicating the test or Bluebook; or altering the test, answer keys, or any data after testing was complete.
Testing Irregularities: College Board may cancel your scores if they determine that any testing irregularity occurred (collectively "Testing Irregularities"). Examples of Testing Irregularities include problems with the test, irregular circumstances, or events associated with a test that may affect 1 or more test takers. Examples of this are errors like improper seating, improperly admitting someone to the test, giving an accommodation that is not approved by College Board, defective materials, defective equipment, technical issues like a Bluebook malfunction, testing device malfunction, hardware issues, or an internet outage.

Privacy and Data Usage

College Board collects and uses data from your testing device and activity for various purposes, including ensuring device compatibility, test security, validation, research, and improving products and services. This data may be shared with trusted vendors and, in aggregated or de-identified form, with other parties.

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