Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 09:30     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
This isn’t in effect for a year so kids know what they need to do to appeal to CalTech

(From our HS, it’s be an athlete but I digress)
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 08:50     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/standardized-tests/standardized-testing-buckets

Interesting approach. Less stress for kids?


They really think 780+ (or 1560+) belongs to a different tier. Interesting


Well, of course it does.

Do you know how standardized test scoring works?
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 00:22     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This does not make sense to me. How does 770 equate to a 34? A 770 is the equivalent to a 35 or possibly even a 36.


I imagine the people at CalTech have done the math on this one.


That is an interesting question because CalTech is slightly misaligned relative to the actual concordance tables. I suspect that it is because they detect a bigger difference at a 33.

If they want to keep the buckets balanced they needed to push 770 down to create two 30 point buckets for the SAT side. They stated that the differences are small so I doubt bucket A or bucket B will matter at all.their goal is to get more 750s to apply, not hurt kids with 770.


They said the difference in bucket A is small as measured by academic outcomes at caltech. They clearly said that the difference for bucket B is larger in terms of academic outcomes.


Larger but still relatively small
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 00:15     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
^ by counter-intuitive, i mean a student could have an 800 math score and be worse off than a student with a 780 math score by missing bucket A verbal by 20 pts
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 00:12     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
Anonymous wrote:So the bucket system applies to the subscore/sections. But Caltech still sees the overall SAT or ACT composite score?


By definition they do, since they know the composites. Sounds like they don't evaluate that way though. An a 1560 composite could be 800/760 (an A/B bucket combo) or a 780/780 (an A/A combo). Since they only see the bucket classification A or B (no score), assuming there is a preference for A/A, the 780/780 is the better combo. A bit counter-intuitive, but thats what it appears to be
Anonymous
Post 09/14/2025 22:27     Subject: Caltech “Bucket System” for SAT / ACT
So the bucket system applies to the subscore/sections. But Caltech still sees the overall SAT or ACT composite score?