SAT Scores Questioned: There's More To Your Student's Score from the New SAT Than Meets The Eye.

Since the first scores of the New SAT were released last week, there has been a great deal of speculation and skepticism surrounding the scores, and quite frankly it is for good reason.  Although many students in Montgomery County, MD were thrilled to see scores better than they expected, the numbers reported in and of themselves are actually a bit misleading, as the Washington Post reported in an article titled “Why your new SAT score is not as strong as you think it is.” 

At first glance, the scores from the new SAT appear encouraging.  However, the reality is that a score of 1300, for example, on the new SAT, is not as strong as a score of 1300 on the past exam.  In fact, you need a converter to adjust your new score to the appropriate score.  (Incidentally, there is also an app available through the College Board to help convert scores).  However, what the conversion calculators unanimously reveal is that the new scores don’t stack up to the old scores, and the discrepancy between scores can be as much as 80 points.   

That means that students who were counting on a specific score to lock in admission to a certain school are liable to find out they need a higher score than they thought.   Consider the example of student Bill Jones.  Bill believed he needed a 900 total SAT score to fall in line with the median score of Incoming freshman at West Virginia University in 2015. However, with the new SAT scoring system, Bill actually needs a 980 score.  Likewise, at Penn State, where the 2015 median score of incoming freshmen was an 1190, students taking the new SAT need to score 1260 for the score to carry the same weight. 

Confused yet?  You’re not alone.  At Everest Tutors & Test Prep, we predicted that there were going to be some hiccups and obstacles and problems with the new SAT.  A change of this magnitude simply wasn’t going to go off without a hitch, which is why we continue to recommend that high school students in Montgomery County, MD take both the SAT and the ACT for the foreseeable future.   

The ACT has become the more popular of the tests in recent years, and with such big changes to the SAT, it is highly advisable that students preparing for college study take the ACT in addition to the SAT until this scoring is better understood.  As a private tutoring and test prep services company serving Montgomery County students for a nine years, Everest's sole goal is to ensure your student performs their best in school and on all college prep tests they choose to take. 

In the meantime, if you are struggling to understand what your student’s new SAT score means for him or her, in regards to college admissions, feel free to contact us anytime at (301) 208-8011 or via email at [email protected].  We are happy to help you and your student determine the best strategy for preparing for the next exam, whether that is the ACT or the SAT.

---