The score system for the SAT. The scores are graded on the curve (It's that recentered word you see when you get your score.)

Each question you get right gives you a point, each wrong answer you lose a fraction of point (-1/4) i think. This is to be a penalty for guessing, but if you can eliminate at least 1 or 2 choices, it's a good idea to guess. This becomes your raw score, and that is curved into the something-hundred score.

There are 2 invidual scores, math and verbal, which add together to make the combined score

The average score on each section of the SAT is 500, leading to a combined score of 1000. The scale is from 200 to 1600 combined, with each section ranging from 100 to 800. So you get 200 points just for writing your name, as they say.


Personally, I'd agree with arkston. I still remember my mother berating me for "only getting a 1330" and swearing up and down that I was not worthy for any college, no matter what I tried to tell her. (FYI, that's close to 90 percentile, aka quite good enough)

There is a bizarre obsession, almost cult-like, with this singular number. For many adolescents it can mean the difference between their parents’ praise or disdain. I first took my SATs in 7th grade for Christ’s Sake! But why? I really don’t know. I don’t believe that I received any special advantage from it; I don’t believe that I am a better, more well-rounded, or cultured person from it. So what is it?

There are prep courses out the wazooo. I took a Princeton Review course once. I had a friend who took a Kaplan course. We both got fair scores. I ended up at a respectable university. Sure, you’re guidance counselor will kindly explain to you that it’s all about creating a standard against which colleges can measure student’s equally; but I have a different theory. SATs are really just another chance for someone to make money off of the suffering of others. Somewhere in Princeton, NJ there is a greedy old man who is raking in the cash. He is capitalizing on the suffering of high school juniors and seniors everywhere. I think that it’s pretty clear from grades, recommendations, interviews, and essays whether a particular student would fit in at a particular university; there is no need to put students through the crap that is SAT morning.

and they’re ALWAYS offered on saturdays. why???

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