SAT Scores
The SAT scores are little complicated, but deliberated on a fair way of calculation. Hence, the scores of the fellow participants would not be affecting each other. The SAT test is conducted as an admission test by most of the colleges in the United States of America. This exam is designed and developed by a nonprofit organization in the USA, called as the College Board and was established in the year 1900. More than 5700 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions in the USA follow the SAT procedures in admitting the students into their institutions. The students are provided marks for a grand total of 2400 and the scores above 500 in each subsection indicate average performance, however the SAT cutoff scores differ from one college to another.
Calculation of SAT Scores
There are various steps involved in the allotment of the SAT scores, such as:
Raw Scores
The raw scores are the points that are provided to the multiple choice questions sections in each of the three major divisions, such as, mathematics, reading and writing. For every correct answer, one point is allotted and ¼ point is subtracted for every wrong answer and no mark is subtracted for the omitted answers. But, the mark allotment is different for the SAT subject test. In case of the SAT subject test, for every correct answer, one point is allotted and ¼ point is subtracted for every 5-choice question section, 1/3 point is subtracted for every 4-choice question category, and ½ point is subtracted for each 3-choice question section.
Scaled Scores
The raw scores are then transformed to the scaled scores, which are calculated based on the scale range from 200 to 800. A statistical analyzing process, called as ‘equating’ is used to calculate the scale scores and this procedure makes sure that the peer participants scores doesn’t affect one another. For example, if the scaled score is around 500, then the student is said to have performed average in the SAT test. Then the scale score of each of the three main section are added together to account to the grand total of 2400. The scaled scores for the writing section comprises of 70% of marks from the multiple choice writing skills and 30% of marks from the essay scores. Further, the essays are provided marks from 0 to 12, and this is evaluated by two trained high school teachers and college lecturers. Hence, the essays would be ranked by two professionals, each providing mark from 0 to 6, thus finally accounting to a total of 12. This mark would in turn be used to analyze the writing skills of the students and would also appear in the SAT score report.
Percentile Scores
A student’s position would also be represented in the form of percentile, which is a number ranging from 1 to 99. The percentile mark is allotted for each section of the three major divisions in the SAT test. This percentile form of representation is in practice in most of the national level exams like GMAT, GRE, etc… This number illustrates the student, the number of peers, who are below his/her scores. For example, if a student had scored 75 percentile in the math division, then it means that 75% of the people had scored less than the student, or he/she has done well compared to 75% of people, who had attended the SAT test.
