<p>a collegeboard director sounds off on perfects scores. I think he's off base here. There are some whizzes out there who will get 2400 75% of the time. What's your take? How much of it is a crapshoot?</p>
<p>“It’s extremely rare and a terrific accomplishment. They did extremely well,” said Brian O’Reilly, an executive director at College Board, the New York company that owns the SAT. “But it also means they got extremely lucky. If these kids took the exam again, it is unlikely they would ace it again.”</p>
<p>With various versions of the exam using different questions, O’Reilly said, the students were fortunate to have avoided a geometry question they couldn’t solve or a vocabulary word they didn’t know.</p>
<p>It's not really luck at all, unless you're a borderline 2400. I honestly think that the majority of 2400 scorers would never encounter a problem they couldn't solve on the math.</p>
<p>Also, CR and Writing have some curve, so that factors in as well.</p>
<p>I think by lucky the director really meant that those 2400 scorers happened to feel good on the test day. I don't think they can do that again after some consecutive sleepless nights.</p>
<p>And most of the mistakes we made in math are due to carelessness, which is part of human nature. So it's okay to attribute a perfect score in math to some luck.</p>
<p>^Right, unless they just don't ever make silly mistakes in math... That's the thing, there are some people who are so comfortable with all the possible material that there is no element of chance involved. For example, I am always comfortable with every math question, and never get errors. On the other hand, I am less comfortable with the CR and thus hope that the curve balances any mistakes I make. I'm sure there are people who are very successful in both.</p>
<p>So this statement:</p>
<p>"With various versions of the exam using different questions, O’Reilly said, the students were fortunate to have avoided a geometry question they couldn’t solve or a vocabulary word they didn’t know."</p>
<p>Even for those who are infallible in the math section, their possible failure to achieve perfect scores can also be accounted for by BAD LUCK. lol</p>
<p>Not to brag, but if anyone is going to be infallible in the math section, it would be me and these other two kids.</p>
<p>However, last year two of them missed one question (the same one, because they read it wrong) and this year one of them missed one (that we know so far).</p>
<p>It's not because they didn't know how to do it, it's stupid mistakes. </p>
<p>Last years PSAT I missed 1 writing question that wasn't even a hard question. On the SAT I missed 0. On this year's PSAT I missed another 1 question, and it's just because I overthought it. Give me that question 10 more times and I'll get it right every time.</p>
<p>So my experience and those of some very smart friends suggest that some of it is luck, because we all read questions wrong, make dumb mistakes etc. and it only takes 1 mistakes sometimes to ruin a perfect score.</p>
<p>Luck plays a part of it, but soon that factor isn't going to be as big. Starting March, not anymore, seeing as people can take it as many times as they want.</p>
<p>I just did a practice test, a QAS, and did it in order just like the real thing. I missed only two multiple choice questions - one writing, and one math for a score of 2380. Making both errors were a matter of " bad luck," because the math question was a level 3 stupid mistake and the grammar one was a level 5 that dealt with the subjunctive, and I had forgotten about how to deal with that.</p>
<p>It's certainly possible to get a 2400, but luck plays a big role. I had to guess between "paucity" and "panoply" for on CR question, for example - luckily I got it right.</p>
<p>I don't really understand the argument here...basically, many of you are saying that there is NO ONE who would make careless mistakes on the SAT? A girl at a nearby school got 2400 twice. I'm sure there are others. Some people just don't make careless mistakes. The SAT info is really basic, which is why I find it totally plausible that some people wouldn't make silly mistakes at all on any of the sections. I haven't made a careless mistake on the math section ever, on the real thing or the practice tests. I do on CR. Again, I'm sure that there are people who are better than I, who do not suffer from any careless errors at all. They are not inevitable.</p>
<p>Well, the girl had zero life, and wanted to see if she could do it again. But that's another issue altogether.</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that although we suffer from careless errors (and not even on all sections), that doesn't mean that no one doesn't. If I took the SAT again, would I get another 2400? Maybe, maybe not. But I know I would get 800 on math, because I'm simply not prone to errors there. Others can say the same about CR and W.</p>
<p>I would say that, although there is an element of chance in there, it is certainly not one that exists in all people. What I mean is, if you take enough practice tests, and analyze your mistakes, you may just find that the SAT makers have a problem with trick wording, and, if a similar question were to pop up on your test, you would recognize immediate what it is. Human error exists, but this is not a coin toss instance, when chance cannot be manipulated, reduced, or altered.</p>