What accounts for differences in SAT scores?

Cllgemom
Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:14:23 +0000

There’s one other factor, that should be taken into account. I know Dartmouth has reported somewhere how many applicants and accepted students have 800 on one half of the test. I know this was true of my son, he had 800 Math, 800 Math Level II and a bunch of other good math and Science awards (national/regional objective stuff), but was in the mid 600’s in Verbal (I’m sure some of you are horrified). He only took the SATs once and never took them again- he’s not a fast reader, and didn’t think it would make a difference how many times he took them. Despite this “weakness”, he still has an A in the required freshman English class. I think some of these super scores you see posted can be a bit misleading and that there are plenty of academic students admitted with a 600 here and there.

One last reality check, we got one of those letters in the mail telling him he was a National AP scholar (8 or more AP exams, they all have to be 4 or 5) and they reported that 8,000 kids got this last year (I assume mostly, seniors, but inclusive of Juniors and other grades too). By reading these boards you’d think the number should be 50,000- with the scores kids report. I do think there is a little score inflation, and that perhaps the emphasis placed on it by international applicants (and the competiveness of that pool) skews these boards a bit.