I took a look at this conversion table: http://blog.prepscholar.com/new-sat-conversion-chart-old-2400-to-new-1600
I took a practice test and scored much higher on the new (converted to the old) than the old exam. I was thinking of two things:
Is this table really accurate?
Do colleges expect more near perfect scores on the new SAT?
Umm… the conversation table is just a percentage of x/2400 converted to y over 1600, I’m pretty sure. It doesn’t reflect the difficulty of the new exam.
You did better on the new test score converted to old scoring system probably because your writing score was lower than your average of reading and math on the old exam.
And no, colleges don’t expect perfect scores unless you’re applying to Havard or something.
The table itself says do not rely on it. All it does is provide a two section score from the old test that removes the writing score while assuming you scored the same in all three sections, e.g., a 1500 converts to 1000 simply by assuming scores on the math section, reading section and the writing section of the old test were 500 each. No one has taken the new test yet so it is not possible to create any comparisons at this time, and you will not find a single college in the nation relying on that conversion table.
What would you say is a fair score to aim for if I am trying to get into schools with an old SAT of around 2200?
College Board will eventually publish concordance tables for the new and old SAT’s. Until then, it is impossible to equate scores with any accuracy. However, according to the percentile ranks published by College Board for seniors in 2014, 2200 on the old SAT was the 98th percentile. So an approximately equivalent new SAT score would be a 98th percentile score, whatever that turns out to be.