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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Younger siblings tend to have lower IQ than firstborns. It’s probably not about the SAT.

Source?

[Anonymous]

I think you have a selective memory.

[Anonymous]

A lot of copium…. There aren’t many high scores this year or last years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

My kid took the test twice in late 2024 and once this October. He got a 1570 on the October 2025 test. I don’t think they made it harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

^^^ yep!

[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.

100% this

They even cut an entire section and an hour off the ACT and reduced the number of choices Sept 25. The SAT was also made easier.

They are dumbing down both these tests as well as the AP exams—to meet kids where they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What is the cliff? Drop-off in academic performance?

[Anonymous]

Class of 2026 kid: practice tests mid 1500s, Aug 2024 1560, Oct 2024 PSAT 1430

Class of 2027 kid: practice tests mid 1500s, Aug 2025 1360, Oct 2025 PSAT 1340

To me, the PSAT scores are the clue to the direction College Board intends to go. We'll see in April with the commended cutoff for 2026.

[Anonymous]

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?

There's a difference between "what you hear" and what actually happens.

Also 1420-1480 is a great score range!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The difference is few teachers teach, there is no spelling, vocabulary, grammar, no reading books in school, etc.

[Anonymous]

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?

Those kids with 1420-1480 will super score a 1500+ after a few tries. Many of my sons friends have 1500+ but it’s their super score.
That said, this is a small group at a tough private school. It’s not common. Except on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2026 kid: practice tests mid 1500s, Aug 2024 1560, Oct 2024 PSAT 1430

Class of 2027 kid: practice tests mid 1500s, Aug 2025 1360, Oct 2025 PSAT 1340

To me, the PSAT scores are the clue to the direction College Board intends to go. We'll see in April with the commended cutoff for 2026.

Your first kid is a better test taker. There has not been a change in the way the test is scored.

[Anonymous]

My kid took it once in Sept. and got a 1550. She was scoring between 1560-1580 on practice tests, so not much of a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It takes time for tutors and prep services to perfect their methods around new formats. You don't want to be among the first to take these tests after there have been big changes.

Translation, they haven’t figured out how to cheat yet. Ask your students if they are aware of cheating in previous years.

[Anonymous]

Only about 8k kids a year get a 1560+ without superscoring. Pretty shocking.

There are, what, 4 million high school grads per year and just under 2 million SAT test takers?