<p>I know it has been mentioned here and there, but I don't think there's an actual thread for it, so here goes. </p>
<p>Do colleges look at percentile or score for a particular test? Say a 780 in bio equates to a 99 percentile, and an 800 in bio for a different month is also a 99. Does 780=800?</p>
<p>How bout if you take Chinese and get an 800? (The percentile is very low.) Would it be the same as an 800 in Physics?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does 780=800?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Does 1=2? Does an IQ of 134=170? They're both the 99th percentile. Hint: They are not equal. </p>
<p>Look... colleges have common sense. An 800 in Chinese is great... unless you're a native speaker and especially it's not very impressive if you've never taken a course in it. I don't believe that colleges see a big difference between a 780 and an 800, they're the same percentile. They pay more attention to the situation. You make an 800? Unless there's something like a native speaker taking the test in their mother tongue or possibly Math I an 800 is an 800, good job.</p>
<p>The percentiles are based off the entire last year's class, not the people on a particular administration of the current year. So if you take the Bio test two times in a year, the percentiles are comparable. </p>
<p>Also, a 760CR is "99th percentile", but so is an 800. Does that mean they're equal? No, it means that the 760 is dead on 99th whereas the 800 is something like 99.42. It's just they don't report higher than 99th (or in the case of 99.5 and above, it's 99+).</p>
<p>The difference between a 780-800 is really not that important when it comes to subject tests. Most of the time, if you get 750+ you are golden, and 700+ is good. As far as I know, colleges primarily look at the predicted score range for that test to see if you got within it - besides that, it just depends on how much of the test you know that day. For example, my 780 on Bio M showed that if I retook it several times, I'd probably score within the 750-800 range - within it, it's primarily luck (unless you study more) whether you'll score higher or lower on a particular test day. It's not that important.</p>
<p>The difference between a 780-800 is really not that important when it comes to subject tests. Most of the time, if you get 750+ you are golden, and 700+ is good. As far as I know, colleges primarily look at the predicted score range for that test to see if you got within it - besides that, it just depends on how much of the test you know that day. For example, my 780 on Bio M showed that if I retook it several times, I'd probably score within the 750-800 range - within it, it's primarily luck (unless you study more) whether you'll score higher or lower on a particular test day. It's not that important.</p>
<p>Colleges really don't care about the difference between a 780 and an 800. Are they different? Of course. But the difference is negligible and, as people have said, the difference could very well be luck of the draw on the questions on that particular day, etc...</p>
<p>the difference between a 800 and 780 is only 2 questions.
its mostly based on the questions on the test.</p>
<p>thats why they have "range"</p>