Math/English Score Discrepancies?

I’ve noticed that subscores for both SAT and ACT show that, on average, math scores are higher than English scores. Why is this? My scores all have the opposite trend; I got a 770 on SAT ERW and a 700 on the math, and for the ACT I got two 36s in reading and English and a 33 in math (34 in science). I doubt that higher English scores are >that< unusual, especially for me since I want to be an English major, but I’m curious if having higher English scores than the school average could have an impact on admissions in general.

The higher math score ranges relative to verbal might be due to international students whose first language isn’t English. Math might also just be a more consistently-taught curriculum world-wide. It’s a cumulative subject with measurable results, you need to master certain skills and concepts before you can move to the next level, and there is a clear path for progression. Tracking typically begins as early as 5th grade here in the US and it seems that there are university options for those who blow through BC calculus before senior year. A lot of attention has been paid to Math and STEM in recent decades so no one should be surprised that math scores for competitive admissions tend to be impressively high.

Compare that to the one or two tracks of English language/lit or History subjects into which the advanced and the struggling alike are plunked. Most of these courses are more properly taught in small seminar format - which doesn’t happen in HS. In addition, it’s pretty obvious that the kids who excel in reading and writing have themselves been reading for years and years on their own. Most of them probably detested the slow pace of their language arts courses in elementary and middle school and couldn’t wait to begin honors in order to pick up the pace a bit. But, unlike Math, Honors English and History don’t begin until 9th or 10th in most schools.

Finally, analysis of written work can be very subjective and imprecise, especially when compared to math, and perhaps even more difficult to teach properly, even if you have the best students and the best instructors available. These are skills that take years to develop and probably require many initial years of instruction in the subtleties of the language first. It’s quite possible that today’s college prep courses over-prepare kids in math (relative to the material on the test) but under-prepare in analysis and interpretation of written works. Whether that means the verbal section should be easier or the math section harder is left up the mucky-mucks who design these tests. One problem with the current SAT as well as the ACT is that they tend not to measure performance at the tails very well - and many of the scores you are probably looking over are high enough to be at the right tail of the distribution.