<p>He said old, Zaphod, not ancient.;) kjh59, are you talking about the 2 part (math and verbal) SAT that was given until last year? If so, those scores are not analogous to Zaphod's score, since Zaphod took it before it was recentered.</p>
<p>"The traditional SAT score reporting scale is a conversion of the raw score to a scale score that was anchored to a 1941 norm, or reference group, and established over fifty years ago. At the time the scale was established, a score of 500 was average. With a range of 200 to 800, scores of 400 to 600 were in the middle of the SAT score range. However, the 1941 population of ten thousand students who took the test consisted of a relatively small group and was an elite segment of the academic system. The original scale was representative of the students taking the test at that time but is not representative of the nation now, particularly the million-plus population applying for college today.</p>
<p>Beginning with 1996 SAT scores, recentering reset the midpoint of the score range at 500, the middle of the 200-to-800 scale based on the 1993 population, the new reference group. As a result, the recentered verbal and math scores can be examined on a comparable scale. On the original scale, a 424 verbal score was comparable to a 478 math score. Recentering eliminated confusion about differences in math and verbal scores. The meaning of "average" performance is now easier to understand. The use of 500 as average is again meaningful. Student scores are interpreted in percentiles that are comparisons of scores with the scores of others taking the test.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/research/abstract/3875.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/research/abstract/3875.html</a> has the article with more information regarding the recentering and the effect on percentiles. BTW, they were recentered in 1995.</p>