Are SAT scores just higher now than the mid/late 90s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the SAT in 1987. It was harder then.

For example:

1. Each question had five choices - now it's four. Easier now to narrow down to two answers & guess.

2. No longer deducts points for incorrect answers.

3. You can superscore & use score choice.

Huge difference between 1987 and mid o late 90s, as the test was recentered in 1994 or 1995. Anyone taking the test before that recentering would need to add around 100 points to get their equivalent current score.

In 1979 a score of 1400+ was very uncommon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I blame the internet for making it so much easier to prep for the SAT. Or maybe I blame the internet for exposing it and showing us all it isn't very good at measuring aptitude?

Interesting.. I blame the College Board for making the test so much easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easier now. The don’t have those dumb questions that go like this:

Apple is to airplane as brain surgery is to ___.

I never understood how answering puzzle questions was supposed to show my worth as a potential college student. Very funny they took that test seriously.

It does. And those are LSAT questions.

Agree with you, not the PP, but you must be young because analogies were on the SAT until 2005.

[Anonymous]

Im making 300 on my SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The renormalizing in 1995 was huge and a mistake as there is now way too much compression. I got a 1560 in 1989 and that was considered outstanding. My kid just got the same and it is a solid “ehh….I guess report it.”

Sorry, this is silly. A 1560 is still an excellent score, above 99th percentile, and will help your kid gain admission to any school, even MIT. Why bother taking it at all if a 1560 is a solid “ehh….I guess report it”?

What you are getting at is that a) there is a lot more competition (more competition in EVERYTHING... look at every sport) and b) there are a lot more factors that are considered in admissions.

But yes, the SATs were changed (before some of the PPs took them and benefited as well) AND many more kids prep. The fact that more kids prep may make the scores higher but it actually does not make the SAT itself easier.

+1 this is a truly terrible and egotistical attitude for you and your child. Isn't even a humble brag, it s just awful. When you say your 99th percentile score is meh, you are literally crapping on 99% of the students in the country.

It's the Test Optional. If a school previously had a 1400 SAT average, in the first year of TO, only kids with scores above 1400 reported. So the next year, that school's average went up to 1450. So that year, only kids with test scores above 1450 reported. So the next year, the school's average went up to 1480. So then only kids with scores above 1480 reported...it's worse ever year. It's getting so that only a small number of kids report their SATs and only when they are very high. So lots of kids take it, but very few kids report it to many schools. And I'm not talking Harvard here. We were told that for a school like Northeastern (not a school my kid was looking at, but that was the example given), a 1500 was very borderline as to whether to report. Boston College had an average SAT of 1510 for the admitted class this year. So it is now just a ridiculous money maker for the College Board, in which all these kids pay to take it (often multiple times) and then many of them won't even report it.
It's different for the schools that still mandate it, but there aren't many of those and some of them are the ridiculous genius places anyway, like MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the SAT in 1987. It was harder then.

For example:

1. Each question had five choices - now it's four. Easier now to narrow down to two answers & guess.

2. No longer deducts points for incorrect answers.

3. You can superscore & use score choice.

Same!

The SAT was "normalized" in 1995. So you can add ~70-80 points to your verbal and maybe 10-30 to your math from back then (1987) to get an equivalent today. So if you got a 1400 then, it's closer to a 1500 now.

Also, we took the test once, we didn't prep (beyond sharpening enough #2 pencils to take with us on Saturday morning). The PSAT was our test prep. And the deducting points for incorrect answers kept people from having 1600 scores---we had to decide "how much do I think I know the correct answer or should I leave it blank". Much easier to be able to guess on ones we aren't certain.

I took the test once without prep (got a 1240 in 1997 and got in everywhere I applied) but definitely people did prep and definitely people did retake them.

[Anonymous]

SAT is a BS test and it always has been. It’s a money maker for College Board and test prep companies and nothing else. Kids take so many standardized tests. This one should not have such an affect.

[Anonymous]

Yes they re-baselined them - so higher median

[Anonymous]

But the SAT IS easier. Putting aside the difficulty of questions by themselves, the format change to remove the guessing penalty alone makes scores higher. But I also think the questions are a little easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The renormalizing in 1995 was huge and a mistake as there is now way too much compression. I got a 1560 in 1989 and that was considered outstanding. My kid just got the same and it is a solid “ehh….I guess report it.”

Sorry, this is silly. A 1560 is still an excellent score, above 99th percentile, and will help your kid gain admission to any school, even MIT. Why bother taking it at all if a 1560 is a solid “ehh….I guess report it”?

What you are getting at is that a) there is a lot more competition (more competition in EVERYTHING... look at every sport) and b) there are a lot more factors that are considered in admissions.

But yes, the SATs were changed (before some of the PPs took them and benefited as well) AND many more kids prep. The fact that more kids prep may make the scores higher but it actually does not make the SAT itself easier.

+1 this is a truly terrible and egotistical attitude for you and your child. Isn't even a humble brag, it s just awful. When you say your 99th percentile score is meh, you are literally crapping on 99% of the students in the country.

+1
Imagine how their kid must feel! Never good enough for their parent.

Imagine if kid #2 only gets a 1520. they will never hear the end of how their life is over

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the SAT in 1987. It was harder then.

For example:

1. Each question had five choices - now it's four. Easier now to narrow down to two answers & guess.

2. No longer deducts points for incorrect answers.

3. You can superscore & use score choice.

Same!

The SAT was "normalized" in 1995. So you can add ~70-80 points to your verbal and maybe 10-30 to your math from back then (1987) to get an equivalent today. So if you got a 1400 then, it's closer to a 1500 now.

Also, we took the test once, we didn't prep (beyond sharpening enough #2 pencils to take with us on Saturday morning). The PSAT was our test prep. And the deducting points for incorrect answers kept people from having 1600 scores---we had to decide "how much do I think I know the correct answer or should I leave it blank". Much easier to be able to guess on ones we aren't certain.

I took the test once without prep (got a 1240 in 1997 and got in everywhere I applied) but definitely people did prep and definitely people did retake them.

I'm sure some people prepped and did retake. But majority did not, now it's the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the SAT IS easier. Putting aside the difficulty of questions by themselves, the format change to remove the guessing penalty alone makes scores higher. But I also think the questions are a little easier.

+1 The guessing penalty is certainly a reason why there were many many less scores over 1500 in the 80s/90s. Hard to get a perfect 1600 when you are penalized for guessing. I had a 1390 in the late 80s and I know I always left a few blank, after going back and "calculating my certainty with my answer for those questions". That was one and done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The renormalizing in 1995 was huge and a mistake as there is now way too much compression. I got a 1560 in 1989 and that was considered outstanding. My kid just got the same and it is a solid “ehh….I guess report it.”

Sorry, this is silly. A 1560 is still an excellent score, above 99th percentile, and will help your kid gain admission to any school, even MIT. Why bother taking it at all if a 1560 is a solid “ehh….I guess report it”?

What you are getting at is that a) there is a lot more competition (more competition in EVERYTHING... look at every sport) and b) there are a lot more factors that are considered in admissions.

But yes, the SATs were changed (before some of the PPs took them and benefited as well) AND many more kids prep. The fact that more kids prep may make the scores higher but it actually does not make the SAT itself easier.

+1 this is a truly terrible and egotistical attitude for you and your child. Isn't even a humble brag, it s just awful. When you say your 99th percentile score is meh, you are literally crapping on 99% of the students in the country.

It's the Test Optional. If a school previously had a 1400 SAT average, in the first year of TO, only kids with scores above 1400 reported. So the next year, that school's average went up to 1450. So that year, only kids with test scores above 1450 reported. So the next year, the school's average went up to 1480. So then only kids with scores above 1480 reported...it's worse ever year. It's getting so that only a small number of kids report their SATs and only when they are very high. So lots of kids take it, but very few kids report it to many schools. And I'm not talking Harvard here. We were told that for a school like Northeastern (not a school my kid was looking at, but that was the example given), a 1500 was very borderline as to whether to report. Boston College had an average SAT of 1510 for the admitted class this year. So it is now just a ridiculous money maker for the College Board, in which all these kids pay to take it (often multiple times) and then many of them won't even report it.
It's different for the schools that still mandate it, but there aren't many of those and some of them are the ridiculous genius places anyway, like MIT.

I agree with everything you said but there is no school where a 1560 would not be reported. And I have a hard time believing that anyone would think twice about a 1500. Even at Harvard it's about average for he enrolled students and if you don't report it, at a school where most accepted student DID report, they are going to assume it's lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the SAT in 1987. It was harder then.

For example:

1. Each question had five choices - now it's four. Easier now to narrow down to two answers & guess.

2. No longer deducts points for incorrect answers.

3. You can superscore & use score choice.

Same!

The SAT was "normalized" in 1995. So you can add ~70-80 points to your verbal and maybe 10-30 to your math from back then (1987) to get an equivalent today. So if you got a 1400 then, it's closer to a 1500 now.

Also, we took the test once, we didn't prep (beyond sharpening enough #2 pencils to take with us on Saturday morning). The PSAT was our test prep. And the deducting points for incorrect answers kept people from having 1600 scores---we had to decide "how much do I think I know the correct answer or should I leave it blank". Much easier to be able to guess on ones we aren't certain.

I took the test once without prep (got a 1240 in 1997 and got in everywhere I applied) but definitely people did prep and definitely people did retake them.

I'm sure some people prepped and did retake. But majority did not, now it's the norm.

I grew up in an upper middle class part of Baltimore and classes and retakes were very very common.

[Anonymous]

Many more kids take prep courses now OP