<p>@bluebayou: The SAT changed in March of 2005, not 2006.</p>
<p>I guess its all semantics. You might not feel comfortable calling it a “curve,” but you have to agree that the conversions change from test to test. And in high school, curves usually mean that a 100% is no longer exactly a 100%. If the highest score was a 70%, then that becomes the 100%, and those who got 50% don’t have to worry about failing. The same occurs with the SAT to some degree. A perfect score is not just -0, it can be -1, -2, -3 etc, depending on the test. And “difficulty variance” is just too much of a mouthful :P</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanations by fignewton and BigIs!</p>