<p>I was looking through this forum this weekend, specifically about PSAT scores, and noticed something that was a bit surprising to me. Given the curve, it is possible to answer 3 questions wrong on the PSAT and drop below the '70' score. A 70 would be similar to a 700 score on the SAT, and from what I gather, 700 or above is a particularly coveted SAT score for those 'reach' schools.</p>
<p>I'm curious about the reaction of those who advocate admissions based mostly on numbers--GPA, test scores etc.--to this situation. Does a difference of one or two questions at this level (1 wrong versus 3 wrong, for example) really equate to that big a difference in terms of those qualities that these 'reach' schools want in a student?</p>
<p>My view would be that there would be little difference between someone who scored a 690 and one who scored a 730 if this difference results from 1 more missed answer (but I am no psychometrician, so perhaps there might be). Yet I think many who advocate admissions based on test scores would advocate that the person scoring 730 is more 'worthy' of admission. </p>
<p>I am not so much interested in the overall debate about the value of SAT scores themselves, but if you do consider them to be very important, how do you feel about this small type of difference in terms of admissions criteria. </p>
<p>Perhaps this unfairly characterizes the situation, but do you really think that a difference of one or two missed bubbles on a 3 hour test accurately reflects a great enough difference between candidates so that one would deserve admissions and the other not?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it reflects a meaningful difference. The whole thing is kind of ludicrous. </p>
<p>But now you understand why kids take the SAT more than once. Sometimes, the difference between a mediocre score (say, the 690 that one of my kids got on the critical reading section on the first try) and an outstanding score (say, the 800 that the same kid got on the same test on the second try) is just a matter of a very few questions.</p>
<p>What I dislike about the SAT is that it punishes guessing by reducing your score by up to 1/2 a point. So for the kid who guess and missed on 2 vs the kid who left it blank can be a huge score differential. So the kid who takes academic risk is punished? My kid has a horrible time just passing up trying to answer and so… all I can hope is that his teachers point out how willing he is to put himself out there academically in all things and hope they might make the connection to this test. If he is denied, not much we can do about it. However, if he is deferred or later waitlisted, we will offer some of this as explanation.</p>
<p>I’m not sure specifically what schools you are referring to by “reach” schools. There are some that pay more attention to SATs than others.</p>
<p>By and large, the very top schools don’t pay that much attention to SATs. Most of their applicants have high scores, so it ends up not being a particularly important factor in determining who gets accepted and who doesn’t. 25% of Harvard’s freshman class scored under 1400 on the math and CR SATs combined.</p>
<p>Likewise, the top school’s aren’t impressed by gaudy SATs that aren’t backed up by grades, extracurriculars, etc. They all reject large percentages of students with perfect SATs.</p>
<p>One advantage of the ACT is it does not penalize you for guessing…And it is a better managed test system anyway. It is definitely worth having a sophomore/junior take both PSAT and PLAN to get an idea of whether one style test works better for them.</p>
<p>All of these issues really aren’t too worrisome, because every college admission office in the land understands that there is error in estimation in any brand of college entrance test, and that every college MUST (by mathematical reality) admit some students who marked wrong answer choices when they took their college entrance tests. </p>
<p>The PSAT has fewer questions than the SAT, and so it’s more susceptible to this sort of problem, but the problem does exist for the SAT too. On the other hand, the SAT shows a “score band,” as well as the actual score for each section. I think most admissions representatives at reach schools have an idea of the raw score to scaled score conversions, as well as the meaning of the score bands.</p>