<p>I took a practice test from the Blue Book a week ago and was thrilled to get a 2400--1 wrong on critical reading and 1 wrong on math. But lately I've heard horror stories about awful grading curves and was wondering if it's really impossible to get a 2400 without a perfect score. I'm taking the January SAT and aiming for 2300+, so any advice about actual grading would be appreciated!</p>
<p>On another somewhat related note, I signed up for January rather than March because my school advised everyone to take it in March and I figured that the curve would be less harsh if I took it in a less popular month. For juniors, is March really that much more popular than January?</p>
<p>The scaling curve doesn’t have anything to do with the popularity of the test month (January and March are the two least popular test months nationwide, BTW). The curve adjusts for small variations in the difficulty of the test. So, don’t worry about this.</p>
<p>In math, you typically need a perfect raw score to get an 800, but occasionally one wrong = 800 as well.</p>
<p>In CR, you can typically get two wrong, and still get an 800.</p>
<p>For writing, you usually need a perfect raw score to get a perfect subscore (80), although occasionally one wrong = 80. With one wrong, you’ll typically need essay=12 to get the 800, and with two wrong, even essay = 12 usually won’t give you an 800.</p>
<p>The curve depends on the particular test they give, and they probably aren’t very apt at telling which ones will be harder beforehand. The experimental section on the SAT (the tenth section that’s never on practice tests) is meant to gauge the average performance of students, iirc, and comparing that to previous counterparts, they come up with a curve.</p>
<p>Note that individual curves will always stay within a specific score range, which you can find on Blue Book Tests 4-10.</p>
<p>^Yes. However, the ETS has a very good idea of the difficulty of each test beforehand, since each question, before actual use, is tested in an equating section to determine difficulty, appropriateness, etc. The uncertainty is in the difficulty of the new test as a whole, which can’t be determined until the test is administered.</p>
<p>The Blue Book test scales are perfect (for the ones that were previously given). There is fluctuation between years, so 1 wrong on Math could be a 800 one test and a 760 the next.</p>
<p>The Blue Book is pretty accurate - if you stick to the strict time limits. Some people perform better or worse on the actual test because of nerves, etc.</p>