MATH SAT Scores Reach 36-Year High

AP ^ | 8-26-03

[dogbyte12]

The College Board, which owns the nation's most popular college entrance exam, said Tuesday that this year's high school graduates had an average cumulative score of 1,026 points on the SAT, up six points from 2002. Both the average math (519) and verbal (507) scores were up three points from last year.

[RonF]

since the 1990s you can get a perfect score even if you have a couple of wrong answers.

Not true. My son got a 780 on the Math side instead of an 800 because he got all the questions he answered correct, but failed to answer one question. You gotta get them all to get an 800.

[TankerKC]

I had a similar experience. I had great GMAT scores (and, I don’t even remember the scale now) when I took the test in 1996. In 2000 I was applying for a slot as PhD student slot at the Air Force Institute of Technology’s (AFIT—the same place I got my MS). They told me my GMAT scores were my weak point and I’d need to retake the test. Apparently the GMAT scores had been adjusted in some fashion in that four year period.

[crescentbeach]

not sure of the time frame this chart is supposedly good for, but it's better than nothing (I hope)...

http://www.greenes.com/html/convert.htm

[BohDaThone]

There are two different issues here. In the mid-90's, the test was "recentered," with the major effect of raising the verbal scores about 80 points, with little or no effect on the math scores. This was announced and acknowledged at the time. Thus, a verbal score of 500 is roughly equal to a 420 before the change. They are NOT just claiming that a 510 now is better than a 450 then.

The second issue us consistency from test to test. This is accounted for, to the limits of statistical technique, by using "equating" quetions (the "experimental" of the test, which doesn't count). Briefly, if today's group gets exactly the same score on the common questions as last year's group, but do a few points better on the rest of the test, then we know the rest of the test is easier, and you have to do a few points better (in raw score) to get the same 650, or whatever. And vice-versa.

This is pretty standard stuff, and unless they are out-and-out liars, it should be accurate. And, remember, we all believed them when the test showed that scores were going down, and exactly the same techniques were involved.

Where the recentering DID affect things is at the high end. After the change, everyone who would have gotten 720 to 790 on the verbal got an 800. This does mean that now you can miss up to four questions and still get an 800. I know, as my youngest got an 800, and missed 2. That's why the 897 "perfect" score are way up from a dozen or two in the past. THAT PART is phony -- but the national average numbers as reported should not have any major methodological flaw. It's only a few points either way, but a few points up is better than a few points down.

[TheMole]

This information is widely available and was never a secret. You want an online source that spells it out fairly clearly? Here's how Kaplan Test Prep, a commercial tutorial firm, explains it to prospective test-takers:

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but a perfect score on the SAT is still 1600-800 each on the math and verbal sections. However, contrary to popular belief, achieving a perfect score doesn't mean answering each question correctly.
In a recent test administration, you could answer up to four of the 78 verbal questions and one of the 60 math questions wrong and still receive a perfect score. But this doesn't mean that thousands of students score 1600. The test is scaled so that no more than an estimated 0.07 percent of the test takers in a given year will end up with a perfect score. That means about seven out of every 10,000 test takers will earn a 1600 on the SAT I.

The online source is Hobson's CollegeView.

[ladyjane]

Interesting chart. I'm impressed that you found it. I've seen it in manuals but not on the web.

It's just about impossible to compare overall scores for students over time. Different types of people are now taking the test. Thirty years ago it was mostly male students planning to go to four year colleges. Now, very poorly prepared students with no plans for college take the test dragging down the average. Some schools require it. Also the majority test takers are now female. . . so that should really raise the scores!! Seriously, you you took the test in 1965 not only is the scoring system different your competition is different.

[LibWhacker]

Excellent points. Leave it to the AP to have no clue or interest in what's actually driving the changes.

[truth_seeker]

"Teachers are the bottom of the barrel of college educated people."

When I look back and recall which people went to teaching, I tend to disagree with you. Knowing just a few teachers now, I conclusively disagree with you.

The problem isn't their intelligence. The problem is how they direct the intelligence.

These days, nobody gets whacked by the vice-principal. They get ridilin. Nobody gets whacked by the parents, or the parents lose custody of the kid.

As a consequence the teacher gets stuck with babysitting the group. Further, the kids are being taught that everybody and everything is okay.

Minimal consequences result in reduced compliance with standards. And I think the tests have been dumbed down, since my time in the mid 60s. That makes me so old, I can't remember my score. Wasn't bad, though-Stanfordish.

[KCmark]

Million Man Math.

---

Rush had a skit on the million man march a long time ago, spoken by Farakan. It was so funny and I never found a copy. Does anyone know where to find it?

[TankerKC]

Thanks for the link.

[BohDaThone]

One source from the College Board says that there have been "more female test-takers" than male, for "over two decades. I haven't been able to find a source, but I am quite confident that even in 1973 ("30 years ago") the SAT takers were not overwhelmingly male. The composition of the SAT takers did "deteriorate", in a sense, from the 60s to the mid 70s, but hasn't changed all that much since. Even now, only about 25-35% of all high school seniors take it. This does vary radically by state, which is why state figures are not too meaningful unless you notice which states have 5% of their students taking (usually the best ones) while others have 50-60%

[visualops]

Rush archives his skits.
This link is from Google, but I don't know if it works for non-24/7 member (I am a member and the link changes when I go there).
Down near the bottom under EIB Parody Commercials is the Million Man Math skit.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/parody.guest%0D.html

[RnMomof7]

Yea calculatore will do that

As does dumbing down the test.

I still see young people in the stores that can not figure how to give change without a cash register to tell them what to do.

When was the last time you had your change counted back to you? They unlike previous generation just do not know how to do it

[tcostell]

I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and support a publicly "funded" education for everyone, but give me choices on how it's spent. If the public schools have to compete for funds with the private schools the cost will drop and the quality will rise. I don't mind the existence of a public school system, but I object to it as a government funded legally mandated monopoly.

I don't even mind a public school that promotes a leftist, anti-Christian ideology. If a school like that can survive in the free market, good for them. But the teachers unions should have to sing for their supper...provide performance (on a dollar for dollar basis with private schools) or lose their funding one student at a time.

.

"We have your children...so don't make any trouble."

The NEA.

[LS]

We agree on that. I am even willing to settle for a 50% rebate on my ed tax/state tax dollars if my child goes to a private school. I don't think everyone should be double penalized, but I do realize that there are some poor people who cannot afford to send their kids to a private school, and I am willing to help them a little. But double taxation---once for them, once for my kid's private school---is wrong.

[crescentbeach]

At the same time, more kids take SATs more than once, get involved in test prep programs, and take AP courses than did 25 or 30 years ago. Many colleges also require applicants to have more coursework in math than previously. Seems to me that these factors would tend to raise scores.

I took mine 28 years ago, and I don't remember the girls in the room being outnumbered by the guys. But hey, that was a long time ago...

[Tax-chick]

So now I'd have a 1530: my 780 on verbal is now 800, but my 730 on math is still 730. Unfair! Why should I be penalized for being good with language?

[MattAMiller]

It was a government monopoly 36 years ago too you know.

[ladylib]

I don't mind a school that promotes a leftist anti-Christian ideology either, but I don't want that school to be the only game in town, and such as it is today, there is not enough choice, only compulsion.

[MattAMiller]

Thank you for the actual facts. That clears things up quite a bit.