Why am I so good at the new SAT?

Test Preparation
1

Okay so this seems a little weird… this summer I took three practice tests, one for each of the tests (new/old SAT and ACT). Here are the scores from the first two I took:

old SAT: 2040 - 630CR / 750M / 660W / Essay 8
ACT: 31 - 29E / 32M / 32R / 31S / Essay 10

These scores both translate to 1380 on the 1600 SAT scale; which I wasn’t too proud of. Despite this, I took the new SAT with ZERO prep at all and I got the following score:

new SAT: 1490 - 750M / 37R / 37W / Essay 6

This score was significantly better than my other scores (except for the essay, I wasn’t sure how they wanted it formatted and my score should easily go up with practice). What I’m scared is that the new SAT is easier so my score increase doesn’t actually mean anything. Is this true? IS THE NEW SAT EASIER THAN THE OLD ONE? If so, why would the College Board do that?

2

JK I SUCK

3

Wait, you can already take the new SAT?

4

@cappex I took the released practice test for it… but hopefully I’ll never have to take another SAT because I did well enough on the ACT.

5

Here’s the deal:

In my humble opinion, SAT scores in and of themselves don’t matter. What matters is percentiles.

No matter what you score on the SAT, what matters is that you do better than the competition. If you’re in the 99th percentile, regardless of score, then you have a whole lot more options than the kid in the 20th percentile.

But practice tests are very, very different from the real deal. There’s no pressure with a practice test.

6

We have the same ACT. But the considering the released tests are not even real yet, the scoring is obviously not accurate.