Interesting map. I took both. I attended college in OH and they wanted the SAT, although at a later OH university they looked at the ACT as well as my records from the first college.
1500 is actually about average for the SAT. Many of the top schools won’t even consider your application if you scored below 2100. 2400 is a perfect score.
I took the SATs last year and basically everything I’ve seen is that if you break 2000, you’re good. 500 on each section is average. A lot of my friends took the ACT because they heard it was “easier” and if you take it, you don’t need to take SAT subject tests for some schools. I don’t know, I was perfectly happy with my SAT score, and because I hadn’t had a proper science teacher in a while I was leery of taking the ACT. Actually, more than happy with my SAT score, though there were some grade grinds in my class who were pissed that I didn’t take a prep class or open a study book and still scored higher than them on reading/verbal. (I am awful at math.)Looking back most of my class did very well. In fact, a guy in my class was a finalist for the National Merit scholarships–he scored a 2360 out of 2400. That’s just crazy. I feel like I would’ve done even better on the SAT had it been shorter, or the testing conditions better (the school I took it in shut off the water fountains and locked the bathrooms…and of course I forgot my water bottle and was unbearably thirsty the whole time.)
Apparently, there’s some sort of scale on the SAT test. I don’t 100% understand it but theres a scale of 1600 and a scale of 2400. I think it may correlate to subject area tests.
I took both the ACT and the SAT. I think both are a waste of time. Thankfully, I’m good at standardized tests and did extremely well on both of them.
"What constitutes fairly well? Until recently, a 1600 was a perfect score. That meant you received an 800 in the math section and an 800 in the verbal section. That is no longer the case.
The College Board has redone the test, adding a writing section to it, and the highest score is now a 2400. Still very much achievable, but a little more daunting. Let’s dissect the new requirements."
I looked it up…
I shall continue to be impressed with my stepmother’s score because she took the test several years ago when a 1600 was the highest score one could get. So, a 1500 is about a 94%
It’s true that the scoring has changed several times over the years. I took the SAT in 1981 and scored well into the 90th percentile. Your stepmother’s score is also inside that percentile if she took the test prior to 2005.
To clear up what I said about subject tests and the ACT:
It used to be that colleges would require the SAT and two SAT 2s, usually at least one in writing. Now that the regular SAT includes writing, there is no longer another test offered on it in the SATs (and they changed “SAT IIs” to “SAT Subject Tests”.) If you take the ACT with writing in lieu of the SAT, colleges will usually waive the Subject test requirement, because the ACT has science, whereas the SAT doesn’t.