SAT question

[Anonymous]

Hi - I'm far away from the SAT and college but happened into the Colleges and Universities board today which got me going down a wormhole.

I am perplexed by what I am seeing there. I did really, really well on the SATs. I think I had a 1420. This was 99th percentile and really anything above 1400 was outstanding... even 1300+ got people in most places and average to good students got 1100-1200.

For a while they changed the test and the max was no longer 1600. When I heard about SAT scores I no longer had a point of comparison.

I understand it's now back to 1600. But I see posts along the lines of "My kid has a 1420 on their SATs (and other great credentials), will she be able to get into her safety school?"

I googled to make sure the max was still 1600 and came up with this site: https://www.niche.com/blog/the-most-popular-colleges-for-every-sat-score-range/

That indicates that the 75th percentile for Harvard is 1600. Does that mean 25% of kids getting into Harvard are getting 1600? Based on my frame of reference that seems absurb... 1600s were extremely rare. Did something else change about the SATs to raise the average? Or are kids just doing that much better on the test now than 30 years ago?

Just curious!!

[Anonymous]

SAT averages are roughly the same (it's a normed test) but a lot more people are taking it--and you are hearing from a lot more people than when you took it (via social media) and seeing more data sets (via common data set). So 1400 is still roughly the top 5%, but that represents a much larger number.
College admissions at selective schools is a lot more competitive because there are more applicants --both sheer numbers, including international students--but also each kid might apply to 15-20 schools. But the number of slots stays roughly the same--so more competitive. The main point these days is that a good SAT score won't get you in a top 50 school--you need a whole package of grades, rigorous curriculum, extra-curriculars, awards and high SATs.

[Anonymous]

I think back in our day (I'm 43) very few people studied for the SAT. There were a few perfect scores a year. I remember that a perfect score would make local, if not national newspapers.

These days an absurd number of kids get a perfect score each year. I'm not sure exactly how many but if I recall correctly it's something like 20K.
Course reviews for the SAT have become a large industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think back in our day (I'm 43) very few people studied for the SAT. There were a few perfect scores a year. I remember that a perfect score would make local, if not national newspapers.

These days an absurd number of kids get a perfect score each year. I'm not sure exactly how many but if I recall correctly it's something like 20K.
Course reviews for the SAT have become a large industry.

Agree with this. I was friends with the (one) boy who got a 1600. We were at a very good high school. I was admitted with a full scholarship with a 1370. Nobody prepped for the SAT. Nowadays, everyone does, to some extent or another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think back in our day (I'm 43) very few people studied for the SAT. There were a few perfect scores a year. I remember that a perfect score would make local, if not national newspapers.

These days an absurd number of kids get a perfect score each year. I'm not sure exactly how many but if I recall correctly it's something like 20K.
Course reviews for the SAT have become a large industry.

Agree with this. I was friends with the (one) boy who got a 1600. We were at a very good high school. I was admitted with a full scholarship with a 1370. Nobody prepped for the SAT. Nowadays, everyone does, to some extent or another.

Yes, but the test is normed so the scores end up with the same pattern. You just didn't hear from as many people as you do now and more people are taking the test.

[Anonymous]

The average SAT score was recalibrated in 1995. So, if you took the SAT before then, super high scores were very rare. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/us/sat-increases-the-average-score-by-fiat.html

[Anonymous]

I don't think that superscoring was a thing in the 90's either.

[Anonymous]

Here's an article looking at SAT scores over time. https://blog.prepscholar.com/average-sat-scores-over-time

[Anonymous]

Wow. Scores have jumped up in since 2016. 20 points for math. Almost 50 for reading!

I’m going to start adding 70 points to my old score. ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think back in our day (I'm 43) very few people studied for the SAT. There were a few perfect scores a year. I remember that a perfect score would make local, if not national newspapers.

These days an absurd number of kids get a perfect score each year. I'm not sure exactly how many but if I recall correctly it's something like 20K.
Course reviews for the SAT have become a large industry.

About 500 kids get a perfect score nationwide each year.

Not 20K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Scores have jumped up in since 2016. 20 points for math. Almost 50 for reading!

I’m going to start adding 70 points to my old score. ?

The test changed in 2016 to be more ACT-like (e.g. de-emphasizing grammar). A dip in scores is not unexpected as students and prep books adjusted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Scores have jumped up in since 2016. 20 points for math. Almost 50 for reading!

I’m going to start adding 70 points to my old score. ?

The test changed in 2016 to be more ACT-like (e.g. de-emphasizing grammar). A dip in scores is not unexpected as students and prep books adjusted.

It's the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Interesting... Mensa accepts SAT scores prior to 1994 only.
https://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/qualifying-test-scores/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average SAT score was recalibrated in 1995. So, if you took the SAT before then, super high scores were very rare. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/us/sat-increases-the-average-score-by-fiat.html

I think I was OP. I can't get to that article but I took them in 1989ish. So I think your post answered my original question - they were recalibrated. (Did something else change about the SATs to raise the average? Or are kids just doing that much better on the test now than 30 years ago?)

[Anonymous]

Yeah, things have changed. I only got a 25 on the ACT and had nearly 50% of my school paid for in scholarship money. Nowadays that'd get me a big, fat nothing.