Testing organizations are faced with increasing demand to provide subscores in addition to the total test score. To be worth reporting, subscores need to meet a number of criteria: they should be reliable, distinctive, and distinct from each other and from the total score. In this study, the quality of subscores from two subscore augmentation methods (Wainer and Yen) were compared in terms of distinctness and variability. The methods were applied to a high-stakes English language proficiency test. The results of the study showed that Yen better satisfied subscore distinctness while Wainer best preserved variability and had high-reliability subscores. Thus, none of the examined methods of subscoring satisfied all criteria. The results of the study are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

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