<p>ok so according to the data from CBK, if you compare on a percentile basis it would appear that a 31 (which is the 98%tile) and the range 1450-1470 (also 98%tile) coincide. furthermore that coincides with my actual experience with both tests, 31 and 1460</p>
<p>I would like to thank cbk for his research. ok, so the mode of the SAT of this year's seniors is 1000,average is 1017 .The mode of last year's seniors for the ACT is a 21, or a 990 on the old conversion chart, with an average of 21.2 or 990 again. 713422 students scored below the mode of the SAT, consisting of 47.7% of the test takers. 612652 students scored below the mode/avg of the ACT consisting of 47.1% of test takers.</p>
<p>Therefore...I don't want to hear any more consipiracy theories about the ACT being weighed down by people who don't want to take it. It's obviously not true.</p>
<p>Edit: Please check my calculator math.</p>
<p>Edit: @cbk, I am glad to read that they will fix the concordance tables in the spring.</p>
<p>Ive been playing a bit with both charts, and since the amount of kids taking the tests are within 100,000 of each other, a small variance and I did not take that into account, however, the percentiles do show how the colleges may have lower ACT ranges as counting the numbers in each percentile more kids score higher on the SAT than high on the ACT. I worked from the top down into a 94% range on both tests</p>
<p>Yeah, it looks like a 30 ACT (96%) should be a 1380 (95%) since more people score higher on the ACT. The 36-30 ACT have the same amount of scorers as does the 1600-1380. This is assuming colleges want similar ACT and SAT score ranges, which it is apparent they do by looking at their score ranges on college board. Ok this makes me feel better.</p>
<p>i really think (on average, no offense), east/west coast students score higher. so because the ACT is more popular in central america, the average east/west coast student will score (slightly) higher than the average student not from the coasts.</p>
<p>seems to me that there are more people that score a 30 on the act than there are people that make over 2100 on the sat? i have always heard that the act is easier so i wonder if admissions thinks that too?</p>
<p>If colleges are really worried about this, they conduct their own validation study of the issue in their own group of applicants (as the University of Texas did). If colleges have a lot of experience with applicants from all over the world with many different kinds of test scores (as Harvard does), the college admission office already has a sense of how high is high enough on each kind of test to be a successful student at that college. There really isn't any need to worry about what the concordance tables show.</p>
<p>Any conversion tables you find on-line should be viewed as general guides only and should not be relied on to determine what any college actually does or uses unless the table you are looking at is the specific conversion table that a college says it uses currently (and I emphasize currently because some like the UTexas one mentioned earlier is from the 1990s).</p>
<p>Many colleges do not convert at all and have perceived ranges for each that they consider good. Others use a conversion but most do not publish what they are.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with on-line conversions is that they all have their genesis in the College Board conversion table that you will find on the CB's site, which is a conversion without writing section. Conversions with writing that you find on-line simply extrapolate from that one -- they just assume if an ACT score is equal to 1500 in the CB's table, it must be equal to a 2250 with the new SAT test (since 1500 could be 750 each on CR and math, they add 750 for writing to make a new conversion).</p>
<p>All those on-line creators of conversion tables from the CB table seemingly fail to notice the footnotes that CB has for its table. The footnotes tell you that the CB conversion table is 12 years old. It is a percentile comparison CB created in 1996 from ACT/SAT scores from 1994-96 and the group chosen to make the comparison were students from the southeast who took both tests. CB has never done another comparison since then and does not profess its table is currently accurate. In those 12 years, the comparable scores and percentiles for the two tests have changed. Many colleges that use conversion tables today use more recent data from the tests and thus relying on the on-line tables would be a mistake.</p>
<p>concur with tokenadult (#33) and drusba above. </p>
<p>One other consideration in reviewing test scores is the geographic diversity private colleges seek. The ACT is growing rapidly on the coasts, but still is primarily a mid-continent test. The selective colleges in the NE have plenty of apps from the east and from Calif, two SAT strongholds, but not as many (relatively) from mid-continent. Thus, an adcom might accept a slightly lower ACT score (relative to SAT) to boost the acceptances-matriculants from mid-continent, particularly from under-represented states. </p>
<p>Two good schools to compare test scores might be WashU and Northwestern; both highly selective private colleges, but residing in ACT country, so their SAT-ACT mix is not heavily weighted towards one test. (Ted O'Neill has expressed his disdain for test scores, so they don't outweigh those essays at UChicago.)</p>
<p>I'd dig up the data, but off to some real work.</p>
<p>University of Chicago:
Middle 50% of
First-Year Students Who
Submitted Scores
SAT Critical Reading: 670 - 770
SAT Math: 660 - 760
SAT Writing: - -<br>
ACT Composite: 28 - 33</p>
<p>Here a 30-31 is a 1430 (+70 change from collegeboard conversion)</p>
<p>Northwestern
Middle 50% of
First-Year Students Percent Who
Submitted Scores
SAT Critical Reading: 650 - 740 (82%)
SAT Math: 670 - 760 (82%)
SAT Writing: - -<br>
ACT Composite: 29 - 33 (51%)</p>
<p>31= 1410 (+30 change from collegeboard conversion)</p>
<p>WUSTL
Middle 50% of
First-Year Students Percent Who
Submitted Scores
SAT Critical Reading: 680 - 750 81%
SAT Math: 690 - 780 81%
SAT Writing: - -<br>
ACT Composite: 30 - 33 56% </p>
<p>30=1370 (+30 change from collegeboard's rankings)</p>
<p>Thanks bluebayou, all of these schools had 40%+submit the ACT, so it gives a fairer comparison i guess. The change still shows, so it looks like out of 1600 the act comparison needs to give about 30 extra points to the ACT, or probably about 50 out of 2400. I'm guess that's what the new concordance tables will show. In the meantime I will try to raise my score to 33+ so that I'll be safe anyway.</p>
[quote]
i really think (on average, no offense), east/west coast students score higher. so because the ACT is more popular in central america, the average east/west coast student will score (slightly) higher than the average student not from the coasts.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Huh? Where's that coming from? I recall reading that the upper midwest tends to have higher average than the rest of the nation. You are kidding me if you think Oregon/Az have high averages. California? I think California is pretty average; I live in LA and LAUSD looks like one of the worst public school systems in the nation.</p>
<p>midwest states were doing very well:
Iowa: 1st
Wisconsin: 3rd
Nebraska: 4th
Minnesota: 7th
Illinois: 15th
Michigan: 21st
Ohio: 16th</p>
<p>and the worst is Indiana which was still ranked 26th.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Wash, Oregon, Arizona, and California were all ranked in the bottom half. Also, it doesn't look like east coast states were better than midwest states.</p>