<p>Would the College Board scale it, so not as many people have 2000+?
I'm scared because I opted to take SAT 2 instead. My friends said it was easy. If a lot of people had a high score, I would be at a major disadvantage.</p>
<p>I'm referring to the October SAT</p>
<p>I think the curve is predetermined before the test is administered, so no.</p>
<p>The only major curve would be in Critical Reading. My friends, those that took it in October, said the CR was fairly easy. Meaning that the curve won’t be as high as past tests.</p>
<p>^Wrong, curves are predetermined so it won’t make a difference. OCCASIONALLY, CB will throw away a question due to irregularity and readjust the curve. I’ve only ever heard of that happening once though.</p>
<p>If and when they do discard a question,do they make it public?</p>
<p>Yes, it is made public.</p>
<p>The curves are not predetermined, but are designed to correct only for the difficulty of the test. Your score is independent of and unaffected by what other test takers score. There is no predetermined number of people scoring over 2000 or any other level for that matter.</p>
<p>You are saying it is dependent on what the people do, and then you say it isn’t.</p>
<p>I can assure you that all curves are predetermined and thus not affected by the scores of others.</p>
<p>^Do you have a source from CB that says that the curves are predetermined? I just find that a bit hard to believe.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the scale is predetermined based on the difficulty of the test compared to previous tests. As in 99.9% sure. If 2000+s were handed out for a certain percentage of test takers, it would be very difficult to accurately compare two different scores from two different tests. Keep in mind that this is a standardized test and comparing people is its main, if not only, purpose. Ever wonder why they give scaled scores and not raw percentages? </p>
<p>Also, correct me if I’m wrong but I’ve heard from plenty of different sources that the reason CB has experimentals is to determine the difficulty of the section whose scale is not determined yet.</p>
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<p>The second part is correct, the first is not.</p>
<p>Here’s my usual curve info: </p>
<p>1) first read [this College Board white paper](<a href=“Higher Education Professionals | College Board”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board) for the technical information about the curve / equating / standardization of the SAT. This paper is the primary reference. </p>
<p>2) next read [thread=760312]this thread[/thread] for a long but example-filled discussion of the curve</p>
<p>3) assuming you skipped (1) and (2), here is the executive summary:</p>
<p>The SAT curve (the chart that maps from your raw score to your scaled
score) adjusts solely for the difficulty of the test: a harder test will
have a nicer curve and an easier test will have a harsher curve. Someone
who gets a 45/54 raw math score on a harder test will receive a better
scaled score than a 45/54 on an easier test.</p>
<p>The curve is <em>not</em> adjusted so as to make the average score 500 or any other particular number. Likewise, the number of people receiving 800s is not fixed or predetermined.</p>
<p>The curve is <em>not</em> determined before the test is administered (although the difficulty of each question independently is known beforehand). Before a complete determination of the whole test difficulty can be made, the quality of the test takers must be determined using questions that have appeared before, via the equating sections. Note that raw test scores may be lower either due to a harder test, or a cohort of less-prepared students; the equating sections allow these effects to be separated.</p>