Converting the ACT to the SAT

Test Preparation
1

<p>There seems to be a consensus on the web of how to convert the ACT to the SAT. The collegeboard outlines it well here: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/cbsenior/html/stat00f.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/cbsenior/html/stat00f.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>But then how come the percentiles don't match up?</p>

<p>A 29 on the ACT is the 95th percentile, and according to the chart above, it equates to a 1300. But the 95th percentile on the SAT is a 1370 according to the chart below.</p>

<p><a href="http://isis.fastmail.usf.edu/UGRADS/EANDT/sat_percentiles.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://isis.fastmail.usf.edu/UGRADS/EANDT/sat_percentiles.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Can anyone explain this? Do admissions officers use the collegeboard conversion chart, or do they make there own?</p>

2

<p>i think the 1370 being a 95th percentile is so wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even think a 1400 is in the 95th percentile, shouldn't you calculated by adding the math percentile and the english percentile together and then divide them by 2? it seems more logical. And plus, a lot of ppl have 1500+, i know over 200 personally. and that's just in the little place where i live. Think of the world!!!! there must be 1/10 of high school students with that!</p>

3

<p>That College Board equivalency table is basically what all the tables you find on the web are copies of. The problem is you have to read the small print on that College Board site, where it says at the bottom:</p>

<p>"Data are based on 103,525 test takers who took both the SAT I and the ACT Assessment between October 1994 and December 1996."</p>

<p>In other words, all it shows is the percentile equivalencies that existed in the mid-1990's and then only for persons who took both tests. The College Board does not claim it has any accuracy today or should be used by any college for the purpose of determining equivalences. Despite that some colleges do still use it for that purpose; however, many create their own equivalency tables based on more modern data and many do not even try to equate the two. If you want to see how a college actually weighs the scores of each test for admission, you need to see what the middle 50% range is for each college for those admitted with the tests. Examples: Stanford's middle 50% range is 1340 to 1560 SAT and 28 to 34 ACT, which is closer to the actual percentile comparisons that would exist today using modern data. Also if you want to see the actual percentile spreads for the SAT and ACT for 2004 admittees go to the following:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2003/pdf/2003CBSVM.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2003/pdf/2003CBSVM.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.act.org/news/data/04/pdf/t4.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.act.org/news/data/04/pdf/t4.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>all colleges have different conversion tables...i suggest you calculate your scores by putting your english and math ACT scores, putting them in seperate proportions, and solving..its not EXTREMELY accurate, but it factors out the ACT science score...remember though to scale your SAT not from 0-1600, scale it from 0-1200 and then convert the score based on that</p>

5

<p>Alright, thanks for the info.</p>

6

<p>Newby, there were only 15,016 people who scored 1500+ in the class of 2004. When you divide that by the 1,419,007 people who took the test, that turns out to be about the 99th (98.94) percentile. In contrast to your 1 out of 10 assumption, it's closer to 1 out of 100.</p>