curve for biology?

Archive SAT Subject Test Preparation
1

<p>How’s the curve for biology-M? I look at the curve provided by the OG SAT II book and it does not seem really harsh. But is the curve realistic?</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately, Biology (M) truly does have a stringent curve. If memory serves correctly, a fairly representative curve should appear as:</p>

<p>[ul] [<em>] -0(+80): 800
[</em>] -1: 800 [<em>] -2: 800 [</em>] -3: 790 [<em>] -4: 780 [</em>] -5: 770 [<em>] -6: 770 [</em>] -7: 760 [*] -8: 750 [/ul]</p>

3

<p>That’s not too bad.</p>

4

<p>It is approximately curved so that an 800 will place you at the 97th percentile and a 750 will come to the 89th.</p>

<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;

5

<p>Math level 2: 88%?!
Chinese: 61%?! Korean: 65%? Wow! Unbelivable! Are all the native speakers taking their mother languages? What’s the point of it?</p>

<p>Striving for 800s~~</p>

6

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<p>Yes, basically the vast majority of those who take the Subject Tests in Far Eastern languages are native speakers (since instruction is often not available to non-Native speakers). But the 800 adds another credential.</p>

7

<p>^ just a note about that: many schools do not allow people to take their native language as one of their subject tests! I read this one Harvard’s website, as well as on Stanford, Brown, etc. Basically, if your first language is Chinese and you take Chinese as a subject test, it will NOT count as one of your requirements, though it may be used as an “extra” subject test so that they could see your proficiency in your mother tongue.</p>

8

<p>Could -10 for Biology still possibly be a 750?</p>

9

<p>^Not likely. I don’t see how that could happen.</p>

10

<p>How about Biology-E?
Is the curve different??
I think this year’s biology e section was very very very hard…</p>

11

<p>^^ I think it could happen. According to Barrons, a raw score of 65 (which is 12 wrong) is 740 for Bio E and 730 for Bio M. A raw score of 68 (10 wrong) is around 760 for Bio E and 750 for Bio M. I think this test was also pretty difficult…</p>

12

<p>^^ I hope that’s right :(</p>

<p>It was ridiculously hard…
Happy to find someone who agrees with me!</p>

13

<p>I think the fact that so many students felt the test was difficult will help with the curve.</p>