Yes, things have changed. 1985: very few people would study for the SAT. It was actually considered a no-no IIRC. One kid in our school got a 1600, and his family was investigated for it, which was SOP back then. They made him retake it. It was that unusual.

Now, kids have private SAT tutors, start prepping in middle school, take it multiple times and report "super scores." Basically, they take the test 3 times and focus on a different section each time to get the highest score possible in each section, then super score.

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.

Same here and same age group. I remember when I was applying the median score at MIT was 1400. Test prep was basically unheard of and my score on the verbal portion was considered very unusual.