How will colleges treat the SAT scores of students in the class of 2017 who took the old SAT? If a person’s score is well above the average for a particular school, usually that acts as a motivator for the school to let them in (in order to increase the college’s averages); but will schools convert old SATs to new SAT scores, and factor in that number? Or will they just not use the scores at all?
I think the percentile is the best way to deal with a new test; it shows how you do relative to everyone else, so if the test was ridiculously hard but you did relatively well, you’re still in a good position. I doubt they’ll convert the score, as the two tests are very different.
Fair enough. I was just wondering if the advantage of having a high old SAT score was less of a benefit this year, as colleges can’t really use it.
Colleges generally will be accepting the old SAT test for at least class of 2017 and 2018; however, it’s best to check with each individual college to confirm. College Board should be providing concordance tables (old test to new test) in order to assist colleges and students with understanding how their scores translate back and forth.
I am of the class of 2017 also. The concordance tables will get rid of any new SAT score inflation right?
The concordance tables will simply allow colleges and testers to understand scores from the new test in terms of the old one (or vice versa) using, most likely, an “equal percentiles” basis. In other words, score X (new) will concord to score Y (old) if both are in the same percentile.
What I’ve been reading so far on the other forums is that it sounds like the new SAT was much easier…So I’m hoping that colleges will understand that those of us who have taken the old SAT may have a higher score than perhaps those who get a near perfect new SAT score (if that is where the majority of the students will be)
First of all, there is no way that the new SAT is SO. MUCH. EASIER. that a whole bunch of takers are assured of a near-perfect score. Very few reported near perfect scores for the new PSAT so the new SAT shouldn’t be all that different.
Second of all, scores are scaled. It’s important to understand that CB is re-norming the entire test to take into account the redesign and the new scoring (max of 1600 rather than 2400, reading and writing are now averaged rather than added together, etc.). The scaling will be completely different from the old one (that’s why it will take so long to get the March scores out. They will release March and May results together, having - at that point - administered several tests which they can then use to formulate new curves and percentiles).
Once they re-scale the new test, they should have a good idea of what the concordance between the two tests will look like. You can rest assured that any relative difference in ease or difficulty of test will be adjusted for by the scaling. An easier “new” test will be scaled more harshly than the old (meaning that you will have to miss fewer to achieve the same percentile) and vice versa for a more difficult test.
The number of actual questions missed (i.e. the “raw scores”) matter but only in the sense that someone can use that information to figure out how many questions you need to get correct in order to achieve a certain scaled score/percentile. This time next year there will be a lot more data available to explore that issue. For this year the main piece of important info. will be those concordance tables because they will help overcome the “translation” challenge that exists between the old and new test.