have SAT scores increased since the 1980s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are getting smarter, whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

more Asians now. Hence, higher scores. Nothing to do with lead in the environment

More kids taking test prep, you mean. Especially the Asian kids at DC's MoCo magnet who started with the SAT test prep in middle school. I am absolutely not making this up.

[Anonymous]

The SAT is curved. The same perentage of kids are always above average. What has changed is how big the USA is now - 50% bigger than 1980 and a lot higher percentage of kids are taking the SAT now so that means more getting top scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC missed 2 questions on one and got a perfect. It depends on the test and the year.

DC missed 3 questions on one section and was at 760, so you cannot miss 4 questions and have a perfect score.

I said 2 questions, not 4. And it depends on the section and the year, they reweigh the scores.

NP, a previous poster had alluded to the fact that today you could miss 4-5 questions and still earn a perfect score. That is definitely not true, and I think that the PP was referring back to that claim in responding to yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Kids are getting smarter,[/b] whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

Wrong. The SAT average was about 420 in the 1980's to the early 90's. A "recentering" was done for tests starting in 1995, to move the average scores to an average of 500 which is halfway between 200 and 800.
It is now much easier to score a 1600 on the exam. A pre-1995 score of 730 or above on the Verbal and 780 or above on Math will return the post-1995 test taker a "perfect" 800 score on each test. The "minimum" score on the Verbal exam (presumably, the score you would get if you left all questions blank) is now 30 points higher, at 230. The minimum score on the Math exam is still 200.

Really? The SAT is curved. It is all about percentiles. They will always be the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Kids are getting smarter,[/b] whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

Wrong. The SAT average was about 420 in the 1980's to the early 90's. A "recentering" was done for tests starting in 1995, to move the average scores to an average of 500 which is halfway between 200 and 800.
It is now much easier to score a 1600 on the exam. A pre-1995 score of 730 or above on the Verbal and 780 or above on Math will return the post-1995 test taker a "perfect" 800 score on each test. The "minimum" score on the Verbal exam (presumably, the score you would get if you left all questions blank) is now 30 points higher, at 230. The minimum score on the Math exam is still 200.

Really? The SAT is curved. It is all about percentiles. They will always be the same.

Pre-recentering in 1995, the scores were lower for the percentiles. You can't compare a 1400 from 1992 with a 1400 from 1997.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Kids are getting smarter,[/b] whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

Wrong. The SAT average was about 420 in the 1980's to the early 90's. A "recentering" was done for tests starting in 1995, to move the average scores to an average of 500 which is halfway between 200 and 800.
It is now much easier to score a 1600 on the exam. A pre-1995 score of 730 or above on the Verbal and 780 or above on Math will return the post-1995 test taker a "perfect" 800 score on each test. The "minimum" score on the Verbal exam (presumably, the score you would get if you left all questions blank) is now 30 points higher, at 230. The minimum score on the Math exam is still 200.

Really? The SAT is curved. It is all about percentiles. They will always be the same.

Pre-recentering in 1995, the scores were lower for the percentiles. You can't compare a 1400 from 1992 with a 1400 from 1997.

For info: http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/equivalence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Kids are getting smarter,[/b] whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

Wrong. The SAT average was about 420 in the 1980's to the early 90's. A "recentering" was done for tests starting in 1995, to move the average scores to an average of 500 which is halfway between 200 and 800.
It is now much easier to score a 1600 on the exam. A pre-1995 score of 730 or above on the Verbal and 780 or above on Math will return the post-1995 test taker a "perfect" 800 score on each test. The "minimum" score on the Verbal exam (presumably, the score you would get if you left all questions blank) is now 30 points higher, at 230. The minimum score on the Math exam is still 200.

Really? The SAT is curved. It is all about percentiles. They will always be the same.

Pre-recentering in 1995, the scores were lower for the percentiles. You can't compare a 1400 from 1992 with a 1400 from 1997.

All you have to do is compare the percentiles! Duh. The test itself does not measure any substantive subject matter that would be of use in a comparison. It's a huge bell curve and never changes. The questions themselves may change, but there is no way to tell if they are harder or easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Kids are getting smarter,[/b] whether due to less lead in the environment, more parental attention, better schools or whatever-- that's why they adjust the scoring so the same score corresponds roughly to the same percentile in that generation's kids.

Wrong. The SAT average was about 420 in the 1980's to the early 90's. A "recentering" was done for tests starting in 1995, to move the average scores to an average of 500 which is halfway between 200 and 800.
It is now much easier to score a 1600 on the exam. A pre-1995 score of 730 or above on the Verbal and 780 or above on Math will return the post-1995 test taker a "perfect" 800 score on each test. The "minimum" score on the Verbal exam (presumably, the score you would get if you left all questions blank) is now 30 points higher, at 230. The minimum score on the Math exam is still 200.

Really? The SAT is curved. It is all about percentiles. They will always be the same.

Pre-recentering in 1995, the scores were lower for the percentiles. You can't compare a 1400 from 1992 with a 1400 from 1997.

All you have to do is compare the percentiles! Duh. The test itself does not measure any substantive subject matter that would be of use in a comparison. It's a huge bell curve and never changes. The questions themselves may change, but there is no way to tell if they are harder or easier.

http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/equivalence

"In April 1995, the College Board recentered the score scales for all tests in the SAT Program to reflect the contemporary test-taking population. Recentering reestablished the average score for a study group of 1990 seniors at about 500—the midpoint of the 200-to-800 scale—allowing students, schools, and colleges to more easily interpret their scores in relation to those of a similar group of college-bound seniors."

And indeed, in 2013, the average SAT-V score was 496 and the average SAT-M score was 514.

https://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/averages

Average (and percentile) scores before recentering were lower. For example, in 1990, the average SAT-V score was 424 and the average SAT-M score was 476.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-28/news/mn-225_1_average-math-score

Today, an SAT-V score of 670 puts you in the top 10 percent of all SAT takers (92nd percentile). The equivalent percentile score on the SAT-M is 680 (91st percentile).

http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SATPercentileRanks.pdf

Before recentering, the equivalent SAT scores (top 10 percent) were about 600 (v) and 690 (m).

http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/equivalence/sat-individual

[Anonymous]

We get it. Kids are getting higher scores now.

But the test is curved so they are no better or worse off for getting higher scores. And there is now way to compare the new questions ( which are significantly different than back then - heck they don't even ask analogies anymore) with the old ones. Comparing today's test and scores to the old ones is a fool's errand.

The only meaningful comparison is percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We get it. Kids are getting higher scores now.

But the test is curved so they are no better or worse off for getting higher scores. And there is now way to compare the new questions ( which are significantly different than back then - heck they don't even ask analogies anymore) with the old ones. Comparing today's test and scores to the old ones is a fool's errand.

The only meaningful comparison is percentile.

Is anyone arguing that they are better off now? I just wanted to explain why MY SAT score (circa 1983) isn't as low as it sounds, LOL.

[Anonymous]

This site calculates an approximate recentering of pre-1995 scores:

http://2-bit.com/misc/satcalc.html

Adds about 50-60 total points on average to the score. It was definitely a lot more difficult on a percentage basis to have 1400+ or 1500+ scores before the recentering.