What is a curve?

fignewton
Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:52:46 +0000

cheerioswithmilk:

The SAT is a curved test, meaning that your scaled score (600-2400) is dependent on your performance relative to other people, not how many you actually missed.



No. Quoting from the [College Board](Your SAT Score Report Explained – SAT Suite | College Board), “… a student’s score does not depend on how well others did on the same edition of the test.”

The SAT curve is not like a typical teacher’s curve, which might, for example, adjust scores so that 10% get A’s, 20% get B’s, etc. Or, if you scored better than everyone else, the teacher’s curve might give you an A, other people getting B’s, C’s etc.

The SAT curve solely adjusts for the small differences in difficulty from one test to another. On a easier math SAT, a raw score of 50 might mean a scaled score of 710. On a harder math SAT, a raw score of 50 might mean a scaled score of 730. Score percentiles are not fixed (i.e., the percentage of people scoring 800, for example, varies).