I am really curious if I can find tests released before 1995. I want to compare the questions and see how much harder they were and how I would of done. I’ve been searching for a while and I can’t find any.
Do you have any research on these older tests? I grew up in the Midwest, so it was mostly ACT territory, but I recently found my PSAT scores from the Fall 1985 administration and I was surprised that my score was a 185. At the time that put me in the 97th percentile and I was a Commended Scholar (I found a note from my high school confirming that). On all of the recent tests the Commended level has been in the 200-205 range.
Now your question has encouraged me to do a bit more research, and it looks like they didn’t actually change the test in 1995, they just changed the scoring. They recentered the scoring so that a 500 on a section was close to average. That makes sense since I was seeing that the average section scores for the PSAT in 1985 were in the 40-43 range.
There was no change to the actual test in 1995. Scores were simply recenterred . The median score had become about 900 by then and they raised the score for the median to 1000, with the result that test takers in 1995 and after scored higher than they would have before 1995.
However, there were some changes of significance to the actual test made in 1994. I don’t know where you can find a pre-1994 test but it had an antonym section in the verbal that was taken out and more reading passages were added and the math was also changed somewhat, and 1994 was the first year testakers were allowed to use calculators. I do not recall ever thinking the changes made the test either easier or harder.
Get a copy of 10 SATs, Fourth Edition (1990). It’s available from used booksellers.