SAT/PSAT Scores vs. GPA and Class Rank

<p>I'm a sophomore in high school right now, and we took our PSATs this fall. We got the scores back around the end of second semester and I didn't think much of it. I was looking over it recently, and I had a few questions for you guys.</p>

<p>I didn't do anywhere close to as well as I wanted on the PSAT... Apparently I beat 85% (I'm sure I could easily pull of 95%+ by the SAT) of sophomores, but I'm ranked higher than 95%. I sort of assumed that both of these percentages would be around the same number. </p>

<p>Do you think your PSAT/SAT scores correspond with class rank and GPA?
What were your PSAT/SAT scores, class rank and GPA?</p>

<p>Without studying, reviewing, looking over anything, or preparing in any way I got a total of 175 (67 math (beating 98% of people), 51 critical reading (ugh, 73%), and 57 writing (93%).) I'm hoping I can bring the math to 730-760 by the SAT, my critical reading scores needs a LOT of improvement, I'm hoping I can bring it up to 650-680+, and I want my writing to be in the 650-680+ range also. I'd be happy with really any SAT score of 2100+.</p>

<p>I just wanted to see what you guys thought about SAT scores. Thanks.</p>

<p>actually it does not. It more varies. You may be in the top 5% of your class but you only have a GPA of 3.2 and an SAT of 1200. OR something like top half with GPA of 3.90 and an extremely high SAT scores for examples.
But from my experience (with is very strange and odd) I taken the PSAT in my sophomore year and like you got a good score total of 146 beating at least 76% of ppl in math (53) and somewhat lower in other section without much effort but this junior year I literally stumbles to 136 and got a lower math score (this would be the second time in my life I ever got a lower score in math compared with other section). I review both and found that the math section added more hard problems this year… So I’m studying (slowly but surely for the SAT in June. My disadvantages? School ends for me in May so I gotta be careful not to suddenly stops studying.
Depending on which college you’re or you would be looking into, some may values one above the others.</p>

<p>At a truly hard school, one may be ranked in the top 20, but have a very low SAT score - e.g. a 1700. Why? Because at my school, just keeping up with the sheer amount of work and maintaining a decent GPA precludes any opportunity to study for the SAT.</p>

<p>^^ or at my school, where everyone in the top 20 is smart enough to get a 2000.</p>

<p>Obviously smarter kids have better GPAs, and smarter kids do better on standardized tests. There is a correlation between the two, but it is not a cause and effect scenario (cause: you get a high GPA, effect: you get a high SAT).</p>

<p>^^While that may be true there are other factors involved like getting sick and “gym”.</p>

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<p>I call easy courses, too many study hall periods, and joke classes.</p>

<p>^ Our average SAT is 1790, 2000+ isn’t uncommon.</p>

<p>^Sounds like a decent school, although 1790 doesn’t put it in my school’s league. But let’s not get caught up in this virtue by association fallacy. I judge by individual merit, not by what school you attend, what people you know, or what university your college is situated around.</p>

<p>Yea, it isn’t half bad. We do have the token top 10 kid with like an 1850, and a few top 50% kids with like 2100s, as is expected. Do you know your school’s average?</p>

<p>Wait there also a matter of how many people in your school and better yet your class. There are like 2500 students total. 650+ freshmen, 600+ sophomores and juniors each and a shocker… 300+ seniors… Some schools make it easy to achieve a certain class rank because of the number of student.</p>

<p>Yea, we have about 190 per grade. 20/190 is not as impressive as 20/650, obviously, but you have to factor in how smart/motivated the other students are too.</p>

<p>Right. With a little more effort I could push my way into the top 10, as of sophomore year I am at 216 out of 616 putting me at 25%. But I recently push my grades to far greater heights so who know.</p>

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<p>Yes, and it’s above 1850.</p>

<p>Well im barely top 50% and my scores will trump most of the kids that are rank 1-20. I can score a 1600 without any studying, and will probably max out at 2000. While most of them are getting 1300-1850. Those are the kids who took it though. Kind of gets me angry, but my gpa is set in stone, and my graduating class is getting smaller. It started around 550 in 9th, now its 399 left. Im a junior by the way</p>

<p>Ah, I guess it really depends on the intelligence of the people in your school compared to the national average of people who took the test.</p>

<p>I’m rank 21/440, with a GPA of 4.314 (No idea what scale we use, our val has a 5.3, sal has a 4.8) and I’d consider myself pretty smart. I was just surprised by how poorly I did not the PSAT.</p>

<p>I wish they just standardized GPAs for all public schools around the country. While a 4.3 is rank 21 at your school, it would be like rank 4 at mine… o.O</p>

<p>I highly doubt that. My school is not academically advanced at all. I’d say most of the students here are just academically average. And I doubt my GPA would be a rank 4 at your school, we just use a strange GPA scale. </p>

<p>In CP Classes, a 100 is a 4.875
In Honors Classes, a 100 is a 5.375
And in AP/IB classes, a 100 is a 5.875</p>

<p>You could say my 4.314 is out of 5.16 (the max gpa if I were to do perfect in all classes I’ve taken.)</p>

<p>Wow! That’s a really weird grading scale. In my school its:</p>

<p>In CP Classes an A (93-100) is a 4.0
In Honors Classes an A (93-100) is a 5.0
In An AP Classes an A (93-100) is a 6.0</p>

<p>That is a very odd weighting system. The point I was trying to make is that if someone on cc says “I have a 4.3” it means totally different things to two different people. That’s outstanding at my school, but simply good at yours.</p>

<p>The reason I love the SAT is it tests ability, not dedication. I’m not in the top 25 percentile of my class, but I scored better than 96.6% of those taking the test, including a 800s on some sections. This doubtless helped me a lot in admissions.</p>