<p>OK. My friend took the October SAT and scored a 2130, but he scored a 2370 on the December SAT. His score bumped up more than 200 points in merely two months !!! Is it even possible ? So is it true that the difficulty of SAT varies?
If the December SAT was fairly easier, will the Jan SAT be hard??
Also, if say the Math section of the December SAT was hard, will Collegeboard make the Reading/Writing section of the January SAT hard?
Thanks</p>
<p>It’s called hard work and practice…</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that the difference between a 2130 and a 2370 isn’t as significant as you may think. Knowing all the vocab, nailing the math, or acing your essay could easily raise you a hundred points…each. If you look at the Blue Book, you will find that the tests have very broad ranges. For example, a certain writing “raw point” range may be 680-800; math tends to be 690 - 790, and reading often encompasses something like 680 - 760. That is to say that someone who answered that number of questions correctly in that given test may score anywhere from 2050 on a bad day to 2350 on a great day.</p>
<p>There is no correlation betwen difficulty of the SAT and the month it is taken in. Some are easier and some are harder. However, the difficulty level of the test does not have a significant affect on your score. Your final score is curved to adjust for the difficulty level. Someone that went up 200 points was most likely better prepared the second time they took the test.</p>
<p>^ Im gonna take the jan test. Whats the general consensus on the difficulty of it compared to the other months?</p>
<p>I think it’s safe to say the general consensus is: no, the tests do NOT vary in difficulty.</p>
<p>It would cause absolute havoc if they varied in difficulty to a substantial degree. Even taking an SAT exam once (and getting a lower score) can give you the experience and ease to bring your score up the next month around. </p>
<p>There is no secret formula to determine how hard the SAT will be. Except for practice and hard work, of course.</p>
<p>If the SAT exam for that month is thought to be easy on a general level, then the curve will be harsher, meaning one mistake could cost you more. Fair game. </p>
<p>Ex. When I took the exam in November 2008, Math was relatively easy, but one silly error (-1) yielded a score of 760 instead of what a -1 would be (770/780).</p>
<p>To me, Dec test was also easier than Oct and Nov tests. I thought the curve was gonna be harsher for Dec test, but the curve was harsh for only reading section.
I dunno probably it depends on luck because it’s likely that I got questions that I could easily solve. You know everybody has some weakness.</p>
<p>What all the others posters said. It doesn’t make a difference whether the SAT is harder, or easier. If it’s harder, then you’ll have a higher raw score, meaning that you won’t lose as many points if you made a few mistakes. On the other hand, if it’s easier, then you’ll have a lower raw score, meaning that you’ll lose a significant amount of points due to errors more than what you would normally lose. It’s completely even. Therefore, the only deciding factor is your mentality, your attitude, your mood on test day, the amount of effort and preparation you’ve put in, and luck; your friend probably had all of these on his side, if he managed to make that sort of jump.</p>