Last December, my friend and I took the free trial SAT that officially counted for the March SAT. I got 1380 and my friend got 1310. My friend, however, either took the April or the May SAT again and got 1450. People told me that April/May (forgot which one) SAT was ridiculously easy. My friend got a 140-point jump without studying at all, which means I could’ve easily gotten a 1450. It won’t be a problem if the Collegeboard keeps making its test easy, but I heard that since everyone’s May SAT scores were so high, Collegeboard is now trying to make the October SAT, which I am taking, very difficult. People might argue that SAT scores are based on percentiles and etc, but if you really think about it, if 90% of the test takers miss only 1question in math bc it was so easy, Collegeboard will still give them 750+; it simply won’t give them below 750 due to the fact that they only missed 1question. Even though lower 25% people miss, let’s say, 2questions in math section, they won’t get 400; they’ll still get 700+. I’m exaggerating but the reasoning behind my claim seems pretty solid. Now, those people who took the April/May SAT have unfair advantage in college admissions over people who’ll take the Octover SAT.
What evidence do you have that the College Board is making it difficult? If you aren’t happy with it, why don’t you take the ACT instead?
Hearsay and speculation presented as fact: the internet in a nutshell.
Stop fretting about baseless rumors.
Yeah, what I heard are simply rumors, not what Collegeboard actually said, so I have no comment. But if it actually does happen, I’ll be mad.
Also, I don’t like the ACT because whereas SAT is “how deeply can you think?” kind of test, ACT is more of “how quickly can you solve easy problems?” kind of test. Just an excuse for saying that I have problem with time management for ACT though lol.
HAHAHAHA
So you’ll be mad, and then what?
I don’t know about the ACT, but this is a very common misconception about the SAT, whose curves don’t have anything to do with who takes the test that day–they’re pre-established.
If you believe so strongly that you’ll be at a disadvantage in the Oct sitting, then do it another month.
If your information is coming from internet rumors and stereotypes, then you have nothing to worry about with these types of tests that “don’t require critical thinking”.
There’s been a lot written about it here, but there’s also the psychometric report from the CB floating around somewhere (it’s been posted here before, but I can’t find it right now…search isn’t my friend, nor is free time).
Basically, the data is clear: [there is no better month to take the exam](SAT Facts and FAQs).
I partially agree with your argument, i just took the may sat (official practice test #5 by the college board) and the math was really easy, here’s another thing that I have thought about regarding the October test. October is the hardest test date (in my opinion) because they have much more qualified (studied the entire summer) seniors taking the exam as a last shot for ED and EA, thus scoring low is much more likely to happen than if you take the test in january or april. Example: imagine you are a track runner and you run a mile in 8 minutes, if you run against little kids who cant even finish a mile (aka test takers in january) you will always finish first even if you dont run at your best, but lets say in another scenario you are running against olympic runners (aka october test takers), even if you ran the mile in 7:30 and youve personally did the best you could have possibly done, you would still lose the race because the other runners run a mile in 5 minutes. this is obviously an extreme example for the sake of argument but that’s my thought process. Thoughts?
@AeeROx - that is unsubstantiated. Historical curves do not support this claim, and the notion that the curve is set by who takes the test that day is incorrect.
Olympic runners run sub 4 miles. But that’s another topic, shouldn’t the October SAT have the easiest curve because the sheer amount of lowest denominator/motivated seniors who take the exam so they can get apply places outweigh the few ED kids?
My god, marvin, your new profile picture is terrifying 
I was going for “cute” @bodangles 
Just like I expected, the October SAT was very difficult. Not exaggerating when I say this: it was 2 times more difficult than the 6 practice tests on the Khan Academy website. For 5 of those 6 tests, I got 1450+. But I am certain that I got a sub 1380 on the October 1st test. I am considering canceling the score and just forgeting about ED and EA. I was out of time for reading, which never happened for the 6 practice tests on the Khan Academy, and also thought there were many ambiguous answers on the writing/langauge test, which there never were any on the 6 practice tests on the Khan Academy. My condition was perfect also.
That’s not what I’m hearing from my students, @parkyoshin , but even if the test is hard, that would only mean the curve would be generous.
So the curve isn’t pre-established?