Up Your Score (5 page)

Fewer people know how the ETS really derives an SAT score than know whether or not the government has UFOs buried in a bunker in Nevada. This information hovers in a cloud of confidentiality and “we’ll call you back”s. The ETS claims that this information is known only by a few members of their statistics department and that no single person knows the entire system. On one occasion, they even told us that we can’t call the department that could explain this system because they don’t have a phone.

Despite this veil of secrecy, by piecing different information together, we were able to find out quite a bit about how the ETS takes the number of questions you got wrong and translates them into a percentile and SAT score.

The raw score is a number based solely on how many questions you got right minus a fraction of a point for each question you got wrong.

Your percentile is based on the percent of test takers who had a lower raw SAT score than you. If, for example, you’re in the 64th percentile, your raw score was higher than the scores of 64 percent of the other people taking the test.

The other score you receive is the numerical score, which is on a scale of 200 to 800 for each section. This is the score that is shrouded in so much mystery.

Many people believe that SAT scores are set up on a bell curve, which means that most people would get a score just above or below a 500, and that an equal number of people would get scores an equal distance from the average. This would mean that if 620 people got an 800 on the math section, 620 people would also get a 200. And it would mean that the average score on the test should be 500. But none of these things is true. The ETS admits that the average score on each section is not 500. In 2009, the average math score was 515, the average critical reading score was 501, and the average writing score was 493.

The ETS will not explain how they set up their curve, but the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a watchdog group that believes that all of this information should be available to the public, says that the ETS takes a standard bell curve and shifts it up slightly, allowing more 800 than 200 scores. They also go through a complicated process of evaluating which questions on the test were the most difficult and comparing your performance to that of other people who took the same test and to other people who took the test in the last few years.

Your score and percentile are definitely connected, although the exact relationship will probably be discovered after the identity of the shooter on the grassy knoll. The ETS releases a chart that roughly matches scores with percentiles.

That varies from year to year. There is always more leeway on the critical reading scores than the math scores. During an average year, you can get three or four critical reading questions wrong and still score 800, but you can miss only one math question and still get an 800.

When the SATs were first invented, the ETS decided that if scores were on a scale of 0 to 100, people might start to complain that their SAT scores were not on a par with their regular school grades: “I got a 96 in math but only a 90 on the SAT math section.” To avoid problems like this (and in our opinion to make the test seem more grand and precise than it really is), they set it up on a scale of 200 to 800. Since no one ever gets a 705 or a 692, many people wonder why scores are not on a scale of 20 to 80, the same way PSAT scores are calculated. Again, this is probably a marketing ploy. It sounds better to get an 800 than an 80, and the SAT needed to set itself apart from other tests
in order to get thousands of colleges to force kids to pay millions of dollars to take it.

The ETS is human after all! Well, not exactly “human,” but it does make mistakes.

On the SAT I given in October 1996, the math section contained a flawed question. A student much like you realized that, depending on how one interpreted the unclear (and mean and nasty) problem, there could be different answers. The College Board acknowledged its treachery and rescored the exam, raising the scores of about 45,000 tormented students (13 percent of those taking the exam on that day) an average of ten points.

For the SAT I in October 2005, about 4,600 tests were wrongly scored, due to scanning problems with the machines. While this affected only a tiny proportion of students taking the test that day, you can imagine how you’d feel if you were one of the unlucky ones.

These mistakes just prove that no one (not even the Evil Testing Serpent) is perfect. If you really think a question is unfair—not just that you don’t know the answer, even though we all think those are unfair—there is a (slim) possibility that it is a mistake. The procedure for challenging a question is in the registration bulletin, and your proctor should be able to help you as well.

This service allows you, for $15, to hear your scores over the phone about ten days before you receive your written report (about three weeks after you take the test). Just call (866) 756-7346, give a credit card number, enter your registration number or Social Security number, birth date, and test date, and a recorded message will tell you how you did. Now, you might be wondering, how could it possibly cost $15 per student? According to our local phone company, the ETS is
probably paying about 50 cents for each toll-free call—so most of the $14.50 left over would seem to be pure profit for the supposedly nonprofit Evil Testing Serpent. The information you are requesting is already sitting politely in their computer anyway. If every student in America used this service, the Serpent could make more than $20 million a year off it. That’s enough to gold plate the tennis courts on the ETS’s 400-acre estate! (Yes, your test fees really do go to support a 400-acre estate with tennis courts.)

Why should you give the ETS even one more measly dollar? Hasn’t the Serpent already wrung enough moolah out of you, not to mention blood, sweat, and tears? The better option, by far, is to get your scores over the Internet. For no additional fee, you can go on the website (
www.college board.org
), click on “SAT Home”, put in your username and password, and click on “view scores” to see your entire score history. There is one hitch: You must sign up for a College Board account
before
you take the test. Make sure you do this! As the website proclaims, “it’s fast, free, and easy.”

Being able to get your scores early can save you from an extra week of nail biting and expensive aromatherapy while you wait for your score report. And it is especially useful for situations where hearing your score quickly can help you decide whether to retake the test on the next test date.

When you register, you are given the option of requesting your score report to be sent to up to four colleges at about the same time the report is sent to you. You will need to send score reports when you apply to colleges, so if you have an idea of where you’re going to apply when you take the test, you might as well use the Score Sender option. It saves a step later on. And it’s free. However, if you don’t know where you’re applying and/or have time to get your scores first (and take the test again, if necessary), you can wait and request score reports for your colleges later. The score report is cumulative, and shows all of your scores for up to six SAT Is and six SAT II subject tests.

The College Board lets you request score reports over the phone or on the Internet. If you request reports over the phone (866-756-7346), it costs $10.50 for each report (meaning, for each school!). You need your SAT registration or Social Security number, birth date, and test date. You also need a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover card for payment. Requesting score reports via the Internet (sat.college board.org/scores/send-sat-scores) also works. You can send as many reports as you want for the cost of $10.50 per report, and there’s no extra fee.

Remember, it takes about three weeks for your scores to be mailed after you request them. So if you have a college admissions deadline, plan ahead. But if you forget, there is a rush reporting service. It’s available only online, and it costs $30.00, in addition to $10.50 for each report. Scores are mailed out within two business days of your request.

Tip: Be careful when you’re tempted to use the rush reporting service. Some colleges specifically state that they will not accept rushed scores.

If you have already registered for any SAT test, you can register for another by phone. Just call (866) 756-7346.

But, if we haven’t beaten it into you by now, here it is again: registering online is a much better way to go. All you have to do is go to sat.collegeboard.org/register and follow the instructions.

Why should you register online? For one thing, it’s a lot faster. Just a few clicks and you’re done. You will also know the moment you sign up where your testing center is. In the event that you lose your admission ticket, all you have to do is print out a new one. And, just when it couldn’t get any better, you can also see your scores online the day they come out, instead of waiting three weeks for the paper report to come. You can also see a copy of your own essay online, too.

For SAT services that help you practice, read on.

We didn’t put many practice problems in our book. This does
not
mean that you don’t need to practice. In fact, practice is critical, and we suggest that you do as much as you can possibly stand. And practice comes in many forms: JaJa attributes her success to doing SAT practice tests with a great group of friends. (Doing miserable things can be more bearable when you do them with friends.) We want you to practice, but we didn’t want to make up fake SAT questions when there are thousands of real SAT questions that have already been published by the ETS. Other review books contain tons of practice questions, but a lot of the questions are totally unlike the ones that are on the real SAT. Also, in many books, several of the given answers are
wrong
! The five of us got so frustrated with the questions in these books that we decided not to make the same mistake ourselves.

Our advice is to practice on real SAT questions. Here’s how:

1. Get the “SAT Practice Booklet” and the “SAT Practice Test” published by the College Board. They should be available at no cost from your guidance counselor. The Practice Booklet contains sample critical reading, writing, and math questions and explanations, as well as preparation and test-taking tips. The Practice Test booklet contains one complete practice test and answer sheet.

2. Get the book
The Offical SAT Study Guide: Second Edition,
published by the College Board. This book contains ten practice SATs. It also has hundreds of extra practice questions, many with clear explanations. The hints and strategies it provides are also worth reading. Of course, because it is published by the College Board, the official sponsor of the SAT, it doesn’t tell you how foolish the SAT can be, it doesn’t show you any of the tricks on how to beat it, and it’s not nearly as funny as we are.

A tip: Read the explanations the booklet gives for every question (including the ones you got right). The more you read, the deeper you’ll get into the evil brain of the ETS. It might give you the creeps, but it also makes the questions more predictable, which helps. A lot. While you’re at it, take advantage of as many of the College Board’s free resources as you can. After all the money they’ve taken from you, it’s the least they can do to give you a little help!

3. Take advantage of the SAT and College Board services. Since many colleges consider only your highest score, you can take the SAT more than once. For example, if you are planning to take the test in May or June, you can also register for the January test date and sign up for one of the new services that the College Board now offers to help you learn from your first test (and to make themselves more money). The Question-and-Answer Service provides you with a copy of the test you took, your answers, the correct answers, scoring instructions, and information about the type and difficulty of each question. The service costs $18.00, and you can order it either when you register for the test or up to five months after your test date. It takes three to seven weeks after your test is scored for you to receive the materials, but if you’re willing to pay the $18.00 and wait a bit, you’ll know exactly which areas of the SAT you need to practice. Unfortunately, the College Board does not offer this valuable service for all of the test dates. If you want to use it, be sure it’s offered on your test date.