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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just out of curiosity, is the SAT still out of 1600? Back when I was in high school in tht late 90s if you got anything above a 1200 that was considered great. Is the SAT easier now? What gives?[/quote]

It is out of 1600.  It was out of 2400 prior to this.  In addition to the exams getting easier ([b]based on hearsay[/b]; haven't done a compare between then and now), the increased level of competition has made the scores higher.[/quote]

It's not hearsay-- I can't link to the academic studies because the research is behind paywalls but here is a report from North Carolina (https://studylib.net/doc/10700128/table-of-contents) and an Education Week (https://www.edweek.org/education/s-a-t-to-realign-scores-for-first-time-in-half-a-century/1994/06) article that explains what happened. [b]The 1995 recentering shifted the average score 80 points on the verbal section and 50 on the math, i.e. students who took the SAT prior to 1995 would score at least 130 points higher if they took it after the recentering. [/b] The 2005 changes eliminated content in the test that was considered biased and correlated with IQ tests.

Excerpt:

[quote]"In 1995, the Educational Testing Service changed the test’s name from the Scholastic AptitudeTest to the Scholastic Assessment Test.  ETS aimed to retain the original acronym, while dispelling thenumerous objections to the test being called an ‘aptitude’ test.  Currently, the test is called the SAT, anacronym without any specific word association. Also in 1995, the SAT’s score scale was recentered due to increased diversity of the college-bound  senior  population.  The  original  SAT  Verbal  and  Mathematics  scales  derived  their  universal meaning  from  a  1941  reference  group  of  slightly  more  than  10,000  test  takers,  which  was  much  less heterogeneous than the college-bound senior population in 1990.  Because the universal meaning of the SAT scores had changed with the shift in the reference population from 1941 to 1990, the scales required recalibration  (recentering).  Recentering  the  SAT  scales  resulted  in  two  major  changes:      (1)  The average scores for both the SAT I Verbal and Mathematics tests were reestablished at about 500 – the midpoint of the 200-800 scale; and (2) Verbal and Mathematics scales were aligned so that Verbal and Mathematics scores could be compared directly.  Prior to recentering, Verbal and Mathematics scores could be compared only by looking at percentiles.

In 2005, a new SAT will be administered, which will differ from the current test in three major areas:    writing,  mathematics,  and  verbal.    A  writing  test  will  be  included  for  the  first  time  and  will include multiple-choice items, grammar usage questions, and a written essay.  The math test will include Algebra  II  content,  and  the  quantitative  comparisons  will  be  eliminated.    The  Verbal  test  will  be  re-named “Critical Reading” and will include the addition of shorter reading passages to the existing long reading  passages.    Analogies  will  be  eliminated.    The  maximum  total  score  on  the  new  SAT  will  be 2400, 800 points for each of the three areas."[/quote]

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