stny

Is the curve better on the October or November SAT? My D is took the March SAT as a junior and will be retaking the test in the fall.

rssll5

i think it depends on the test each time... depending on how well the general popluation does on it.

if it's easy.. meaning more people score very well then its going to be a harsh curve...

whereas if its extremely difficult then even if you miss a few questions you can still do well.

sherpa

The tests are normalized such that there should be no difference from date to date.

fhg

There isn't a set difficulty for each particular month(that's a myth), i.e. March isn't necessary always the hardest curve, but it did happen to be particularly harsh this year.

lisieux

Well I kinda heard that in a particular month (is it December or something?) more Chinese people will take the SATs during their hols... And the curve for the maths will be much steeper. Dunno how true it is though, just my $.02.

Good luck!

tetrisfan

Err...unfounded claims, anyone?

BigIs

Much time, money and effort is put into ensuring that a specific candidate will have the same opportunity to earn the appropriate score during any and all testing dates. Period.

philoglossia

that said there are dates when the curve is easier. for example in january you could miss one on the writing MC, write a 9 essay, and still get an 800 on wr overall.

bluebayou

First off, there is no such thing as a curve in the sense that we think about it in school; it does not matter who else is taking the test. ALL test administrations are scaled, and each test scale is equivalent to every other test scale. On an extremely rare occasion, a bad question will slip thru the experimental gauntlet and be thrown out after the fact.

susandaine

mhmm, don't take the Oct. one... cuz nowadays more and more Chinese are studying for SATs... and Oct.1 to Oct.7 is their National Holidays... as a result, most Chinese will attend the Oct.4 SAT Reasoning test... so Math and Writing score will go steeper cuz they're STRONG in these two fields... most of them got 800 in math and 650 in Writing...

BigIs

It DOESN'T MATTER WHICH DATE YOU CHOOSE, though many people "know" better.

fignewton

The "curve" (by which I'm assuming everyone means the mapping from raw scores to scaled scores) is NOT dependent on, say, whether a disproportionate number of strong math students happen to take a particular test.

The curve is used to compensate for changes in the difficulty of the SAT from one test to another. The "variable" sections in each test contain repeated questions from previous tests to distinguish between, e.g., whether a test was too easy or whether a bunch of very good students took the test (both would result in unusually high raw scores).

I'm not saying that there aren't psychological effects due to taking a test with an easy curve vs. one with a hard curve, just that the curve won't reflect that a bunch of very good students took the test.

For more info (very technical), see:

http://www.collegeboard.com/research/pdf/rn14_11427.pdf

Echelon32

January has historically had the best curves. But like all the above posters said, the test is designed so that everything is equalized. It really doesn't matter.

bluebayou

This is just fuzzy logic. Regardless of which test date you take, miss one math problem and you will receive a 770. Get them all right and you will recieve an 800. It does not matter if one million others also get them all correct on the math section on the October test -- it will still be an 800. The SAT is NOT CURVED!

This is an urban myth, propagated by an former admissions rep to sell books.

Echelon32

?????
This is no urban myth...January QAS explicitly display the curves. And you're incorrect about the math score. Depending on the test difficulty, CB changes the conversion accordingly, as you can see below...where there was an administration that actually gave 800s to people who missed a math problem.

I'm not too clear on how exactly they determine it, but I do believe the kids taking the test have an input in the curve determination. They are predetermined based on test difficulty, then CB works some voodoo with the "equating" process to ensure equality. There are articles out there that discuss what the equating process entails.