Is it suddenly harder to get high score in SAT or were people always lying?

[Anonymous]

I think the kids are just weaker academically

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s harder to score at the very high end since the test changed most recently

A lot on reddit about this. The average is shifting down about 50 points

I believe the college board made the digital SAT harder around January 2025 because too many kids were getting really high scores on the digital SAT

[Anonymous]

When did these changes happen? I assume not the change to digital? The 1500+ scores that I know about happened in 2023 through December of 2024.

[Anonymous]

Oh never mind. I see the changes happened in Jan 2025. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest is a junior so only recently started taking SAT/ACT. Before we had or own first hand experience, we used to hear everyone got 1560-1590 in their SAT. After the first couple tries, all the so called smart kids at our school only got 1420-1480. Is the scoring tougher now or were people always exaggerating?

My kid (who is indeed known as a “smart kid at their school”) scored 1480 the first time, 1480 the second time, and 1570 the third time. Right in line with your observation.

What did your kid do to prepare between the 2nd 1480 and the 1570?

[Anonymous]

It was never easy to get 1580+, even superscore, even multiple takings, even with test prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s harder to score at the very high end since the test changed most recently

A lot on reddit about this. The average is shifting down about 50 points

this is not true. maybe true for the reddit population but there are as many 1600, 1580, 1560 etc as there were two years ago.

[Anonymous]

this Sept SAT was the easiest per my kid. ended with a 1580 after a spring test of 1500 and last fall a 1480

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The iPhone/E generation is coming out strong…different from the 05 birth year when kids didn’t grow up with iPhones or iPads in their hands since K. My 05 dud t have a phone until almost 9th grade. He is/was a voracious reader…hence the perfect in vocab SAT; and act English & reading.

The math went down for younger Covid kids too. 05 was already through geometry before everything shutdown.

Def see a difference even in my own house. Younger one had to really prep to pull score up.

my kids high school teachers say they can see a difference between pre and post cell phones, but they also say they see a cliff after this year's senior class, which they attribute to either Covid and/or explosion of kids using AI to do writing/math/science etc assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s harder to score at the very high end since the test changed most recently

That's what I am seeing.
Lots of 1550+ prior to recent changes this year. Now kids who were getting those scores (or higher) on practice tests are getting 1450.....
everyone (including tutors) is scratching their heads.

+1

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s “easy” but there are more very high scores than there used to be.

[Anonymous]

My unscientific opinion is yes. Older DS graduated HS in 2021 - high achiever with a lot of high-achieving friends and a lot of high scores. Younger DS is currently a senior. He did OK on the SAT, not great, and much lower than his older brother. But the thing is, younger DS did better than many of his high-achieving friends, most of whom have much better GPAs than DS. So we're subitting DS's scores to all of the colleges he's applying to because I think there are going to be even more TOs this year than in years past.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's a generational issue when kids scoring high on practice tests are getting 100-150+ points lower on the real test in 2025. That was not so common in 2024. The suggestion that perhaps College Board is trying to shift scores lower seems right on the money to me.

[Anonymous]

We just went through this with our oldest who was scoring higher on practice tests but topping at 1490 on the digital exam. Each digital exam is pretty inconsistent in terms of difficulty so his scores would fluctuate a lot between exams. After a few tries, he switched to ACT and got a 35 on the first try.

Some kids are naturally better test takers + luck of the day and exam and they'll score high on the SAT. So know your kid and their strengths and weaknesses. Mine tended to overthink, and ACT doesn't leave any time to overthink.

[Anonymous]

Mine isn’t studying despite us pushing it but the test only goes to precc so if you start algebra early you forget it.