Quick question about math II scoring

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hey guys, I have a question about the significance of a 790 on the math II vs. an 800. First of all, I'm well aware that 790 is a good score. Secondly, this isn't super important, but it's been bugging me, and I'm curious.</p>

<p>So the math II has a very forgiving curve, and you can get like 10 questions wrong and still get an 800. With my results, a 790 was the 79th percentile, and I checked with a friend who said his 800 was in the low 80's. Therefore, having an 800 means you could have done anywhere between acing the test, and getting about 15% of the questions wrong, but if you get a 790, then colleges know that you got 16% of the questions wrong.</p>

<p>My question is this: does a very math-centric school (like MIT or Cal Tech) assume that an 800 is only one right answer better than a 790, or do they consider an 800 to be significantly better than a 790?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance to anyone who replies, I'm very curious about this.</p>

2

<p>Excellent question! The percentile rank paints the real picture, and from what I gather good schools do look at that score exactly for that reason, in fact I think it might have been on the College Board site that I read that. Makes one wonder why they even bother to give any score/rank other than the percentile, if it’s the percentile rank that the (best) schools are most interested in. So yeah, what’s the real story on that?</p>