@collegemomjam, FYI just .38 percent of all test takers score 35 on the ACT, so it’s a pretty rare score indeed. If you think the ACT is a much easier test than the SAT than you should encourage your daughter to take it.
@candjsdad Wow a -2 on math is still a 790?? I got -3 but only got a 760! I was originally happy with my math score but that blows.
@class0f2017 the scoring on the new SAT is really strange. My son missed 4 in math but got a 770.
@3scoutsmom @classof2017 -5 in math, I think, and got 760 (not sure what 5, I knew I missed 2 because of the proctor, but the other 3 surprised me)
@3scoutsmom @CharlotteLetter Wait how is my score lower then? This also happened to two kids in my school, one missed more questions but still had a higher math score than the other kid. Are some math questions(maybe grid ins?) worth more?
It is pretty clear that each question is weighted differently. My kids missed quite a few (5 & 6) questions in the reading section, but apparently they were the right questions to miss. Each question is weighted for difficulty. I would guess that, as long as the questions you missed are difficult ones your score doesn’t drop as much. My kids took the SAT in Jr. High for a talent search and they got feedback as to how many hard/medium/easy questions they missed. I think they are still doing that, but not being transparent about it.
@ivysource No worries. I appreciate your advice for my son to call it quits with 1490. He is a junior. He took the old SAT last May and October, so this was his 3rd time taking it, but the first time with the new SAT. He will be taking the Math 2 and Chemistry subject tests in June.
We live in Virginia. He wants to major in engineering and is mainly trying to decide between UVA and Virginia Tech. The only reason he took the new SAT is because Virginia Tech will not accept the old SAT for the class of 2017.
Were questions weighted differently on the old SAT? Also, does anyone mind sharing how many questions they missed to get a 760 in math? I want to see how many/how few questions you could miss if you missed the right/wrong questions.
@candjsdad Usually (on the old SAT) you can miss 2 Reading questions and still get a perfect score. Given that scores have recently been scaled upwards, I would expect this to still be true. However, in most cases you can’t get any questions wrong if you want to earn a perfect score on Math.
The College Board has not indicated that the questions on the SAT will be weighted in any way, but until we get more information, I suppose anything’s possible at this point. I would have to guess, though, that every question is worth the same amount of points, like the ACT, which the SAT is trying to emulate.
For example, the document “Scoring Your SAT Practice Test #1” instructs students to score their practice tests according to the number of questions correct, regardless of question number or difficulty: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/scoring-sat-practice-test-1.pdf
Is it possible that the 4 Official SAT Practice Tests are scored differently than the actual SAT? Yes. Is it likely? No. Scores will vary depending on the difficulty curves of each test, but the underlying method of scoring is likely to have stayed the same.
It is true that the College Board has traditionally classified questions as Easy / Medium / Hard, but there is no evidence of the College Board ever weighing questions differently based on difficulty. Then again, everything is brand new at this point, so even those of us with decades of experience in SAT Prep are still learning as we go.
@class0f2017 My son got a 770 in math and missed 5 questions. On the old SAT he got a 740 in math with only 2 questions missed. Those 2 questions were rated as difficult.
@collegemomjam I spoke to many many admission officers over the last year during college searches (many of them from top schools - ivies etc…) They don’t have a preference for either test. SOOOO many kids have been (wisely) advised by college consultants, counselors, and test prep companies to skip the SAT this year because of all the changes and go with ACT, so I don’t believe there is a preference at any school for any test.
As to the 34.75, 35.25 etc… colleges do not see those percentages. The system that loads the application data into the colleges database loads the composite score (say 35) and the subscores (say, 36, 33, 36, 36). Yes, an adcom may look at a lower subscore and wonder why a 33 in science vs a 36 on the other sections- but likely they will not think about it for more than a second. The important score is the composite score and the math & CR subscores.
A 35 on the ACT (as mentioned above) is an amazing score at that only ** .38% ** of test takers get… For all you students reading this that are obsessing over getting a 10 or 20 more points on the SAT when you are sitting on a 35 ACT, please, go work on other aspects of your application. A 35 will not block you from top schools, but a crappy essay and boring application will.
Short time lurker here. First time poster. My DS scored 1500. 750 math. 750 reading/writing. 4 wrong in math, 0 wrong reading, 4 wrong writing. He was somewhat disappointed in his score - had felt very confident after the test - thought he had done better than he did. Interesting to me that his subject subscores correlated exactly with his PSAT sub-scores and Total with his ACT composite.
@MMQC81 Wow I missed 12 questions on CR/W and got a 700.
@classof2017 That does seem odd. Weighting maybe?
I started a different thread (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/1890703-new-sat-reading-scores-p1.html) where there was a strange range of missed questions to scores. Now that I look back at that thread it may just be that each writing question missed had a much greater weight than each reading question missed. So -1 Reading and -2 Writing = 760 AND -5 Reading and -1 Writing = 760. Other combinations seemed strange too, but as I looked back at them they all had missed two or more writing questions.
I’m disappointed…1460 (680 CR+W, 780 Math) my essay was good though (8/7/8). I can’t retake it in June since I’m doing subject tests and only want to focus on those. I will retake it in October but I’m scared it won’t come out in time for EA for the school I want to apply to…I wish they offered a test date in August
I got a 35 ACT but only a 1500 on the SAT… I also filled out my colleges to send scores to in advance for this SAT.
Will this harm my application?
@fantasyready What school is this if you don’t mind? I got a 1460 too and I will probably retake but it’s not a bad score at all.
@class0f2017 Stanford! It’s a giant reach and I probably can’t get in but I’m going to apply anyway!
I got a 1470 which was 99th percentile for the user sample and 97th for the actual test.