<p>Only students scoring at the highest percentiles of the SAT tend to take the MCAT.</p>
<p>The SAT is designed to give a very good “spread” around a score of M+V=1000. That is, the test is designed to make sure that a 1010 is really smarter than a 990. It’s not entirely successful there, but it’s MUCH better in that range. A 1580, by contrast, is about the same as a 1560. The test isn’t very good at separating students out at the highest (or lowest) ranges.</p>
<p>Because those students tend to be the only ones who take the MCAT, the correlation is tough to determine. It’s not because the skills are different – they’re mostly the same, just harder – but because of imprecision in the SAT itself.</p>