September SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid took it last August 2024 and got 1480; DD got a similar score in October 2024. Prepped the whole summer and took it on Sep. 13 2025 and said it was easy and feels like they did better than last 2 times. The previous two exams were much harder she said.

DD said all her friends thought it was way too easy than August 2025. We are hoping she did better than the 1490.

How is this curve done? Overall, we were told by a college counselors August is the worst month to take it in as all incoming seniors take it. Most people take it in August. Counselor therefore suggested September.

The scoring scale is supposed to be set prior to test administration, such that it should not matter which other types of students are taking it at the same time. At least, that's how it always was with paper tests. That's what made it standardized.

With the new digital test, I would be disappointed, but not shocked, if it were the case that College Board was still working the scale out post-administration. It's complicated.

One of my kids took August 2024 and got a high score, mid 1500s, then a relatively terrible score on the PSAT, missing the NM cutoff. Next kid took August 2025 and scored well below the practice test scores.

In fact, everyone I have heard of - from my kid's friends, whom she asked, to two of my own friends who took Aug 2025 - were quite disappointed with their Aug 2025 results. So much so that I find it weird and it makes me question the quality of College Board's work product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid took it last August 2024 and got 1480; DD got a similar score in October 2024. Prepped the whole summer and took it on Sep. 13 2025 and said it was easy and feels like they did better than last 2 times. The previous two exams were much harder she said.

DD said all her friends thought it was way too easy than August 2025. We are hoping she did better than the 1490.

How is this curve done? Overall, we were told by a college counselors August is the worst month to take it in as all incoming seniors take it. Most people take it in August. Counselor therefore suggested September.

The scoring scale is supposed to be set prior to test administration, such that it should not matter which other types of students are taking it at the same time. At least, that's how it always was with paper tests. That's what made it standardized.

With the new digital test, I would be disappointed, but not shocked, if it were the case that College Board was still working the scale out post-administration. It's complicated.

One of my kids took August 2024 and got a high score, mid 1500s, then a relatively terrible score on the PSAT, missing the NM cutoff. Next kid took August 2025 and scored well below the practice test scores.

In fact, everyone I have heard of - from my kid's friends, whom she asked, to two of my own friends who took Aug 2025 - were quite disappointed with their Aug 2025 results. So much so that I find it weird and it makes me question the quality of College Board's work product.

^ should have said "two of my own friends' kids"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid took it last August 2024 and got 1480; DD got a similar score in October 2024. Prepped the whole summer and took it on Sep. 13 2025 and said it was easy and feels like they did better than last 2 times. The previous two exams were much harder she said.

DD said all her friends thought it was way too easy than August 2025. We are hoping she did better than the 1490.

How is this curve done? Overall, we were told by a college counselors August is the worst month to take it in as all incoming seniors take it. Most people take it in August. Counselor therefore suggested September.

The scoring scale is supposed to be set prior to test administration, such that it should not matter which other types of students are taking it at the same time. At least, that's how it always was with paper tests. That's what made it standardized.

With the new digital test, I would be disappointed, but not shocked, if it were the case that College Board was still working the scale out post-administration. It's complicated.

One of my kids took August 2024 and got a high score, mid 1500s, then a relatively terrible score on the PSAT, missing the NM cutoff. Next kid took August 2025 and scored well below the practice test scores.

In fact, everyone I have heard of - from my kid's friends, whom she asked, to two of my own friends who took Aug 2025 - were quite disappointed with their Aug 2025 results. So much so that I find it weird and it makes me question the quality of College Board's work product.

^ should have said "two of my own friends' kids"

This is why savvy students take it at least 3 times. CB adjusts scores to account for difficulty so scores are comparable across sittings. But that doesn't mean that any given kid won't be advantaged from one version to the next. For instance, if the hard questions on one sitting are related to vocab and the hard questions on another sitting are related to identifying a passage's main idea... then kids with different skillsets will do better on one vs the others. When you take it twice (or thrice) you give yourself a better chance to sit for a test that suits your skillset.