One of the remarkable things you may notice on the new SAT in Orinda is the perfect score is now 1600 which is down from the previous 2400. Many students sighed inrelief because of the perfect score change.
Out of the new SAT’s 1600-point scale, 1000 is considered an average score (compared to the average national score of 1500 on the old SAT’s 2400-point scale). So it means that if your new SAT score is 1200, then you’re considered good.
Just last May, a lot of students across the country were, at first, happy at what seemed like excellent SAT scores — many of them got 1300! So it won’t be a distant possibility in the near future that students would score a perfect 1600.
The new SAT scores correspond to the results of the scores which would have been 60-80points lower on some of the old SAT’s sections.
For example, a student has scored 1100 on the new SAT, which is approximate to 1020on only the math and critical writing sections of the old SAT, but with an 80extra points on the new SAT. Even if you score 1500 on the new SAT, it willstill correspond to 1460 on the old SAT’s math/critical reading sections. But if you score a perfect 1600 on the new SAT, it will correspond to a perfect1600 on the old SAT!
The College Board, the institution behind the SAT, re-designed the test it in such a way so that scores will be higher.
In there-designed SAT, the guessing penalty is now removed, so you don’t have to worry about reduction of your scores if you have a wrong answer. Plus, the number of answer choices has been pared down to four instead of five on the old SAT. The essay, which was required on the old SAT, is optional on the new SAT(although some colleges may require it). The testing hours are still the same— 3 hours and 45 minutes — without the optional essay (4 hours and 35 minutes if the essay is included).
The old SAT, as said before, has a 2400-point scale — the maximum score. It had three required sections (math, writing and critical reading), worth 800 points each.The new SAT has 1600 points and only has two required sections (math and evidence-based reading and writing), worth 800 points each.
It’s also interesting to compare the new SAT scores to the ACT scores. The perfect score of 1600 of the new SAT corresponds to the maximum score of 36 in ACT. However,the 1500 of the new SAT corresponds to 33 in ACT, or a good-enough 1200 is 25in ACT.
The test-takers who have gotten their results from the new SAT are quite celebrating at what seems to be an impressive performance. However, the different scoring scales have left many students confused. Furthermore, the different scaling makes them wonder if their scores on the new SAT would stand a chance of helping them get into the college of their choice.
College-bound students will be able to get a clearer picture about the new SAT system by comparing them to their corresponding old SAT scores. There are two useful materials they should refer to:
1. Online concordance table
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/k-12-educator-brief-sat-concordance.pdf
2. Score converter released by the College Board – https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores/sat-score-converter
Some education experts doubt if the new SAT will do anything to improve the K-12 education in the United States; some wonder if the new SAT is just a marketing gimmick.If it is a gimmick, then it seems to work, and that includes the lower maximum scores on the new SAT. Since the changes have been implemented on the SAT in Orinda, more test-takers are interested in signing up for the revised exam.