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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1560 is at the 99th percentile.

1 in 100 is a lot of people.

Also 1560 is the top 1% of single-sitting scores, but most colleges take superscores. So it’s even more people.

LOL your kid probably hates you. What a miserable way to live

[Anonymous]

its all a myth folks..College Board designs the test so that overall distribution is the same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One and done 1570. Took in fall 2024.
Practiced on own - no tutors or test prep.

Always was a voracious reader and good at math.

But didn’t learn grammar in MCPS. I remember getting a workbook during 5/th/6th grades and teaching kid myself. I Also home-taught all the math that was skipped over during Covid.
Not having textbooks is a real shame - makes it so hard for the kids to learn. At least with a textbook, you could self-learn if the teacher isn’t very effective.

Not helpful reply, just a humble brag. DC didn’t take the digital test.

3 kids:
1. 1540 in 2022
2. 1580 in 2024
3. 1380 in 2025 (1st time, digital test)

I’ve been told the new digital test is harder than the old paper format. The question banks are dynamic and change depending how you do in the first section. I’m told there are still a lot of kinks being worked out. Also, college board hasn’t released as many digital practice tests.

They are different people!

Sure. But academically they have all been similar. In fact, DC #3 and DC#2 were on an accelerated math track, taking pre-Calc in 8th grade, DC#1 was not.

[Anonymous]

This thread demonstrates the fact that even “so-called” intelligent Americans don’t understand basic statistics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College board releases percentages who receive certain scores. It’s stayed consistent over time. It’s always been hard to score that high.

this. I think people assume their kids will get a 1500 and when they don't, they blame the test redesign or something. the test gets redesigned with some frequency .. and the scores remain consistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One and done 1570. Took in fall 2024.
Practiced on own - no tutors or test prep.

Always was a voracious reader and good at math.

But didn’t learn grammar in MCPS. I remember getting a workbook during 5/th/6th grades and teaching kid myself. I Also home-taught all the math that was skipped over during Covid.
Not having textbooks is a real shame - makes it so hard for the kids to learn. At least with a textbook, you could self-learn if the teacher isn’t very effective.

Not helpful reply, just a humble brag. DC didn’t take the digital test.

3 kids:
1. 1540 in 2022
2. 1580 in 2024
3. 1380 in 2025 (1st time, digital test)

I’ve been told the new digital test is harder than the old paper format. The question banks are dynamic and change depending how you do in the first section. I’m told there are still a lot of kinks being worked out. Also, college board hasn’t released as many digital practice tests.

it's not harder and the score profile is unchanged.

[Anonymous]

just remember when people tell you their score, they're reporting the superscore.

my kids never scored over a 1500 on the paper or digital tests. but all three would say their SAT scores were 1530-1560. people say the score they reported on the common app.

also, every cycle there are kids who take it 8 times and their parents can't believe they can't break 1500. every dang time. it's not as easy as reddit has you believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1560 is at the 99th percentile.

1 in 100 is a lot of people.

Also 1560 is the top 1% of single-sitting scores, but most colleges take superscores. So it’s even more people.

LOL your kid probably hates you. What a miserable way to live

Egad, why do you say that? “Your high SAT score is lovely but hardly everything” seems like an extremely sane parenting position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one kid taking the SAT in 2022 (when it was on paper) and one who took the digital year. Lots of kids at their private getting over 1500 both years

Average SAT at TJ was around 1520 before the unqualified kids were let in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had one kid taking the SAT in 2022 (when it was on paper) and one who took the digital year. Lots of kids at their private getting over 1500 both years

Average SAT at TJ was around 1520 before the unqualified kids were let in.

It should be no surprise to anyone that both public and private schools that select their student body based on standardized exams have many students who do well on standardized exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just remember when people tell you their score, they're reporting the superscore.

my kids never scored over a 1500 on the paper or digital tests. but all three would say their SAT scores were 1530-1560. people say the score they reported on the common app.

also, every cycle there are kids who take it 8 times and their parents can't believe they can't break 1500. every dang time. it's not as easy as reddit has you believe.

This is why it's more meaningful to report a single best score to colleges. A one-shot high score means more than a superscore. Both can be good, but they are different.

[Anonymous]

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

....and all of those people live right here in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just remember when people tell you their score, they're reporting the superscore.

my kids never scored over a 1500 on the paper or digital tests. but all three would say their SAT scores were 1530-1560. people say the score they reported on the common app.

also, every cycle there are kids who take it 8 times and their parents can't believe they can't break 1500. every dang time. it's not as easy as reddit has you believe.

This is why it's more meaningful to report a single best score to colleges. A one-shot high score means more than a superscore. Both can be good, but they are different.

nope, disagree. you have to remember why colleges want scores: 1) to show their admissions team this kid can do the work. a very very single seating is impressive, but superscore or single seating works for this. 2) to report to public (and now govt) via CDS - superscore, they want the best number possible. 3) to show faculty via internal memos - superscore, they want the best number possible. 4) to show trustees - superscore, they want the best number possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

....and all of those people live right here in the DMV.

Not literally, but they are not evenly distributed, and a disproportionate number of them live in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

....and all of those people live right here in the DMV.

DCUM feels like a ton of high score reports but if you really looking into it it's probably no more than 30 a year just posting over and over and it's almost a sure thing that some are not telling the truth or are talking about scores from years ago.

My kid went to a very high-performing high school and actually did get a perfect score in one sitting. They heard of a few 1580s and 1590s but no other perfect scores. It does seem like in reality the tippy top scores are actually rarer than they seem on DCUM. Even my kid was surprised about this.