Hey y'all, junior here feeling a little overwhelmed. Okay, I've always known that the SAT is an important part of college applications, but I'm having a hard time understanding how SAT scores work. Clear breakdown, anyone? How are they calculated? Also, does my essay score affects my total SAT score?
Your confusion is understandable - SAT scoring can be confusing at first glance! I'm here to help untangle the confusion.
The SAT is made of two main sections: Reading/Writing and Math. Each section is scored on a scale of 200 to 800, with 800 being the highest. These scores are then added together to provide you with a composite score, which ranges from 400 to 1600.
To calculate the scores for each section, the College Board follows a process called 'equating'. It's a statistical process that adjusts for slight differences in difficulty between different versions of the test. This ensures that a student's score reflects their ability, not how difficult the specific test they took was.
Raw scores, which is simply the number of correct answers, are converted into scaled scores using this equating process. For instance, if on one test version, a raw score of 50 equates to a scaled score of 600, on another version, a raw score of 51 might equate to the same scaled score of 600 due to increased difficulty.
Regarding the SAT Essay, it no longer exists. It was discontinued in 2021, so you don't have to worry about writing an essay for the SAT anymore. The essay used to be scored separately from the rest of the exam and those scores did not affect your overall SAT score. Now, though, all you'll need to focus on is the Reading/Writing and Math sections.
Remember, colleges tend to pay more attention to the high level composite score rather than the individual section scores, but all scores matter in the grand scheme of things!
Hope this explanation helps demystify SAT scores for you. The key thing to carry forward is to perform your best and aim for a well-balanced score!
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