Any comments on the worst ever SAT international curve : Math 1 incorrect -30 pts and so on. Is SAT marking international students punitively?
It’s probably because of last year’s cheating scandal and reuse of an old test. Frankly, too many international students have gamed the system to gain near-perfect test scores.
Aren’t the new international tests all electronic now?
same thing. I have six mistakes in the whole test but the score is 1470. do I have to say that it’s unfair or is this obvious?
The scale is not related to the test being given internationally. Each test form (set of questions) gets its own scoring scale. The scale is based on difficulty level of the questions; check your SAS or QAS to see the hard, medium, and easy designation for each question.
The scale for May 2019 international is no worse than the infamous scale from the most common test form given in the US in June 2018 (and indeed the very May 2019 test form was also given to a small portion of testers last June in the US, as was every single new test this school year).
evergreen5,
thank you for the information, but it actually doesn’t change the situation at all. June of 2018 - the scandalous one? do we have to comfort ourselves with the fact that It Could Be Worse now?
There is nothing to change; that’s the point. You must accept it. The curve is not related to the fact that the test was international. Try a practice ACT to see if it might be a better fit for you.
Perhaps College Board will offer harder tests with correspondingly nicer scoring scales in the coming year, which begins in June. No one knows and anything is possible 
evergreen5,
yes, it probably won’t change, but I think that there’s nothing bad about trying to contact CollegeBoard and ask them about it. you see, some people (like me) have no financial opportunity to take the tests multiple times, and I also have no opportunity to get a fee waiver, so it becomes a problem when the result which is supposed to be pretty high turns out to be mediocre.
anyway, thank you for your advice.
Is the curve different for domestic and international students? That seems unfair.
@Racingfan53 The scoring scale is based on the difficulty of the questions and is different for every single test form (set of questions). International and US always get different test forms. So the scoring scales are never exactly the same. The scale has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the test takers were international.
@evergreen5 Ok, thanks for the info. Was just wondering; I’m not affected
Wait…you are saying that a 1470 SAT is mediocre? I should say not. That is a 98th %ile, I believe.
@cypresspat, I don’t think that’s what they were saying at all. I think the point was simply that 6 questions wrong corresponding to a 1470 is a pretty harsh curve. I would agree. My PSAT was -4 and 1470 on a 1520 scale.
It’s a harsh curve because it was an easy test. On a harder test with a more generous curve, you’d probably have gotten more questions wrong. There’s nothing scandalous or prejudiced, and international tests aren’t graded more strictly than US tests.
You received a 1470 because approx 2.5% of students taking the same test got fewer than 6 wrong. If you had 20 wrong and only 2.5% got fewer than 20 wrong you’d get a 1470. If you got 3 wrong but 2.5% of students got less than 3 wrong, you’d get a 1470. (There are some minor adjustments that equate your scores to a broader audience than just those taking the test that day, but this is roughly how it works)
That’s how it works, just like the ACT. Why do believe it’s unfair to be scored compared to the broader population that takes the test? Would you prefer an absolute raw score to “scaled” score that leaves your result totally at the mercy of how hard that particular test is?
Standard, consistent relative score, independent of the difficulty of a specific test’s question Is the entire purpose of the test.
Domestic and International students are scored exactly the same. A domestic student with the same 6 wrong would receive the same 1470.