please explain how sat is scored

<p>i posted this on sat/act thread but no responses so thought i would try here. Just wondering if someone could give me a simple explanation of how the sat is scored ie what is each question worth:
my son is a sophomore and took the sat just to practice, no prep etc. He scored 690 on math section which i thought was pretty good for a 1st attempt with no study...however we got a sheet back that laid out what questions he got right vs wrong. He only had 4 mistakes in math (one in multiple choice.. which is not supposed to result in reducing score) and 3 others (all level 5 questions) There are 54 questions so if scored equally, that would mean each question is worth about 14 points?. if 4 wrong... isnt that 56 points. If he only has 4 questions to improve on, how do you get in the 700's (other than a perfect 800) I read some blurbs on how some wrong answer result in a 1/4 point reduction but even so that would be about 4.5 wrong answers. Please explain how this works. thanks so much</p>

<p>I can't explain in detail, but here's the general idea. </p>

<p>Different SAT tests vary in difficulty. You get a raw score. That score is based on how many you get right--so the multiple choice question your son got wrong will not count as a correct answer and WILL lower his score-- with a deduction for wrong answers once you get over a certain number. (I think it's 4; If you miss 4 questions, not only do you not get those points added to your raw score, one point is deducted. If you get 8 wrong, 2 points are deducted. This is designed to discourage wild guesses.) I don't follow some of what you are saying, but if your son got 4 wrong--meaning he filled out the wrong answer for each of those 4 rather than leaving them blank, 5 points were deducted from his raw score.</p>

<p>I don't understand what you mean by 3 others--all level 5. Level doesn't matter when you calculate the score. </p>

<p>Some tests are easier than others. So, the median raw score on one test might be slightly different than on another. Through the wonders of mathematics, which I don't purport to understand, raw scores are converted to the SAT's 200 to 800 scale. </p>

<p>In other words, the questions on the test are NOT worth 800 divided by the number of questions. Additionally, the difficulty of the questions you miss has NO impact on your score. If you make a careless error on an easy question, it won't be included in calculating your raw score. If you miss the most difficult question, it hurts you exactly the same as missing the easiest one. You get the same raw score based on how many you got right and how many you answered and missed. The raw score is "converted" to a SAT score.</p>

<p>One one test, a 54 might be a 690; on another it might be a 670 or a 710.</p>

<p>Hope that helps a little.</p>

<p>There is no set number of points per question. Sometimes one mistake on Math can result in 800, and sometimes in 770. It depends on how well others did on a given test date. </p>

<p>There are some explanations of scoring on the CB web site. Just let your son practice on some tests, and he'll do fine. If he is good at math, he should also take SAT II Math2. It has a nice curve, so it does not punish kids that are good at math for careless mistakes as much.</p>

<p>the raw score is "scaled" based on CB's research and to normalize accross all tests. On some math test administrations, you can miss one and score an 800, while on others a tester needs a perfect score for an 800. Usually -30 for each of the first three questions; missing one usually means a 770, and missing three can be a ~710/720 score (depending on how many missed items were grid-ins). However, the scale (or 'curve' is it is incorrectly called), is much more generous around the 550 range, i.e., each wrong answer does not equate to a 30 point drop.</p>

<p>The scaling does not much care which questions are missed (easy, medium or hard). Missing the first question (which is always easy), or the last (which is always hard) is still a minus 30 if that is the only question the student missed on the whole math test.</p>

<p>thank you both and bluebayou , that helps me understand it. I guess when i saw the 690 i assumed, that there would be quite a few errors, giving him lots of room to improve in junior or senior year and with studying. But 4 wrong doesnt give much room for improvement LOL. Sounds like backwards thinking almost.. would rather he had lots of errors so could improve vs 4 errors with a score of 690 which is great but i know with the kind of schools he is looking at may not be good enough.</p>

<p>The math scoring is brutal too many kids are both fast and careful. Mathson whose strength really is math got a verbal score of 800 (4 wrong each time) and scores of 760 and 770 in math, 2 wrong and 1 wrong. I'd guess he just needs to be a little bit more careful. He probably knows the material just fine. My son's errors were all really, really dumb. (Misreading questions or leaving out a step.)</p>

<p>my son had more errors (6) in the writing sections but scored about the same ie 680. so i see what you mean about the math scoring. His weak area right now is critical reading but think that will improve with reading practice and getting a feel for what they ask of the reading sections (so that when he is reading he can be gathering the info for the questions)</p>

<p>p-56:</p>

<p>yes, the CR is a little more forgiving scorewise. CR improves normally by another year (or two) of HS english. And, sometimes its just the luck of the draw wiht the reading passages: some are (almost) worth reading and they hold some interest, while others are as entertaining as watching grass grow.</p>