Misunderstanding about Score Choice from College Board
“Score Choice” is an option students have to hold or hide their scores when sending their SAT scores to universities during their application process. AP, ACT, and TOEFL too effectively have similar holding or hiding capabilities.
1) "Score Choice" can only be used to hold or hide any one SAT test date score (not individual sections within the SAT I test). Many students get this confused with "Super Score," which is a term colleges give to student scores that combine their best verbal score and best math score from multiple SAT test dates. This is something universities say they offer to students, but it is the university's choice whether to use "super scores" for students' applications, whether they say they will use "super scores" or not.
2) Students are most confused and don't know about "Score Choice" because they only are shown this choice when they send scores to universities. Since students don't send their scores to universities until the very end of the high school years, they don't know what it is except at the very end.
3) AP scores can be cancelled before students get their scores (and can be done at any time, even right after the test on the day of the test) and thereafter, but AP scores can also be "withheld" only after July after receiving the scores. "Cancelled" scores are gone for good, while "withheld" scores can be released again to send universities the scores. However, to add to the confusion, students have the option to include up to four "free" score sends when they sign up for the AP test. "Cancelled" scores before July (before the scores are out) not only erases the scores, "cancelling" also prevents the scores from being sent to those four universities, but of course, students must do this BEFORE scores are out and BEFORE they know their scores. This "score cancelling" effectively has the same effect as "Score Choice." If students have taken for example two AP subject tests, they can "hold" one AP subject test score while sending off another AP subject test score. However, these score "withholding" (and score "cancel") requests are done by fax (and not online, like the SAT scores), so students can feel very nervous about this, since students won't get any receipt of their score "withholding," nor will they know if their score is "withheld" in time before they send their scores to universities. Because of this last point, it is very important to use "Score Withholding" early, right after the July score update but before the end-of-the-year university applications (for rising seniors, 12th graders).
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/score-reporting-services/withhold-scores
4) ACT scores and TOEFL scores effectively don't need something like "Score Choice" since those tests don't send ALL ACT scores or ALL TOEFL scores taken from the 9th grade and onwards, like the SAT tests. ACT and ETS, the maker of the TOEFL test, send only the scores for only the test dates students indicate when sending scores. College Board, the maker of the SAT and AP tests, sends ALL SAT and AP scores taken since the 9th grade.
5) Many students and parents are suspicious, however, that College Board will still disclose to universities that students have used Score Choice to "erase" their scores, but College Board clearly states that they won't: " For each recipient, send all scores or only some of your scores.
If you’ve taken the SAT more than once, you can send only your best score. However, the college you’re sending scores to might have a policy that they want to see all of your scores. As you select scores to send, you can view the policy requirements of the schools you selected and send what they require."
(https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/send-scores-to-colleges/sending-scores)
6) It is unnerving however to use Score Choice, since the window for choosing to use or not to use Score Choice has the university policy about "Score Choice" right above the slide button to send or not to send scores. The policy box right above indicates that you may or may not use Score Choice, but the decision is still available for you to decide whether to send or not. You can still choose not to send some of your weaker scores, but you still have to get past the psychological barrier of unchecking the box to send scores when it is so clearly indicated like that.