Hello there, I’m an international student applying to the US for the fall 2020 semester. I was wondering whether, when looking at your SAT scores, do admissions officers merely look at your composite scores (e.g. 1400/1600, 700 for Math, 700 for Reading & Writing) or do they glance at your individual sections and check your actual numerical scores for those (e.g. 46/52 for Reading, 40/44 for Writing)?
I’m asking because from my experience, the SAT seems to be graded on a much stricter bell curve for international students than it is for students from the US. On one of my practice tests, I got 47/52 and 42/44 for Reading and Writing and obtained 740 for that section, but repeating the same performance for my actual SAT (with 46/52 for Reading instead) only got me 680. So it isn’t fair if the same composite score could actually translate to different raw scores.
Each year the SAT is different, and the scoring is different. SATs are scored on a curve, meaning that the score you receive is related to how many errors you had, relative to the rest if the kids who took the test. If more students have a larger number of correct answers, the penalty for a wrong answer is higher.
The reason that on your practice test you were graded differently for the same number of errors was because it wasn’t the same test, and the kids who took your test did a lot better, on average, than the student who took the practice test.
So it had nothing to do with whether you are international.
Tests vary in difficulty. They are calibrated to provide even scores for even performance precisely to be fair. You are evaluated based on how well you do, on a percentile basis, against the broader test taking population. If you had the same raw score but a higher test score, would you be complaining?
The SAT is scored the same for everyone - no need for conspiracy theories.
They certainly look at math at EBRW component scores. A ‘total’ score of 1400 doesn’t really tell them much. They don’t look at raw scores precisely because they vary between tests and are statistically adjusted to the 200-800 scale score.
No, top colleges don’t look at points, they aren’t even reported to them. Yes, they look at the individual M and CR scores. For the ACT, they look at subscores. Some not very competitive colleges seem to only want some total, but I’m guessing they aren’t your targets.