At face value, Math Level 2 isn’t exactly an easy test. Yet, last year’s reports say that a perfect 800 only placed students in the 79th percentile, and students who earned a mere 20 points lower ranked only in the 71st. Why are Math Level 2 scores so inflated, why is there such a high proportion of students who get perfect scores? Is the test just that easy, or is there just a high proportion of students who take the test for competitive schools in science/engineering?
It is important to understand that for several subjects, the percentiles are depressed because so few colleges request Subject Tests, that the ones that do are the ultra selective ones. As a result, it is the high achieving kids taking the tests. No AO is sitting on the floor cross-referencing scores with percentiles.
If you think the percentiles for M2 are crazy, look at Chinese and Korean.