4 ms·

I understand that to mean that they do normalization between different versions of the test in a given year, not that they do not do normalization across the SA

I understand that to mean that they do normalization between different versions of the test in a given year, not that they do not do normalization across the SAT population in that year. It would surprise me if they didn't do population-wide normalization, otherwise too many scores would be at or near the upper limit, making the score uninformative, and also you could not compare the rank of students between years. Regardless, because the point of the SAT is ranking, your score is irrelevant. What matters is how you do with respect to your peers. If everyone does better the test has become "harder" because you need to do better to get a higher rank.

ikeboy 11y ago
> It would surprise me if they didn't do population-wide normalization, otherwise too many scores would be at or near the upper limit, making the score uninformative, and also you could not compare the rank of students between years. Be surprised. http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/archived/cb-seniors-2013 http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/archived/... You can't compare percentile, which is why they're released anew each year. You can compare scores. >Regardless, because the point of the SAT is ranking, your score is irrelevant. That's a better point, perhaps. Your race also matters (minorities can get into Ivies with much lower scores than other people). Besides, if people get better, colleges might have more room. (For people with perfect scores, it doesn't really matter.)
- foobarqux 11y ago
  > You can't compare percentile, which is why they're released anew each year. You can compare scores. What does "compare" mean? Does it mean that two people with the same score but in 1996 and 2015 respectively would be expected to achieve that score in a 2005 test?
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    It means that someone in the Xth percentile on one test/year may have done either better or worse than the same percentile a different year. Your second question is yes.

ikeboy 11y ago

> It would surprise me if they didn't do population-wide normalization, otherwise too many scores would be at or near the upper limit, making the score uninformative, and also you could not compare the rank of students between years. Be surprised. http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/archived/cb-seniors-2013 http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/sat/data/archived/... You can't compare percentile, which is why they're released anew each year. You can compare scores. >Regardless, because the point of the SAT is ranking, your score is irrelevant. That's a better point, perhaps. Your race also matters (minorities can get into Ivies with much lower scores than other people). Besides, if people get better, colleges might have more room. (For people with perfect scores, it doesn't really matter.)

foobarqux 11y ago
> You can't compare percentile, which is why they're released anew each year. You can compare scores. What does "compare" mean? Does it mean that two people with the same score but in 1996 and 2015 respectively would be expected to achieve that score in a 2005 test?
- ikeboy 11y ago
  It means that someone in the Xth percentile on one test/year may have done either better or worse than the same percentile a different year. Your second question is yes.