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I was surprised (and happy, of course) to get 800 on the SAT II writing test, but I missed 6 on the MC and got a 10/12 on the essay. This seems like an extremely generous curve. What do others think?

By Apg (Apg) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 10:45 am: Edit

I agree. I got a raw score of 52 on the MC and a 10 on the essay and still got and 800. According to the curve on the released writing exam, I should have gotten a 750.

Is it possible that ETS has done some sort of re-centering? I thought that the mean for the Writing test was already above 500.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 12:13 pm: Edit

I've looked at the writing curve and looked at the test and have concluded the curve is so generous because most students' writing ability sucks dead fish with a straw and that many who thing they're "good" are merely "passable."

By Apguy (Apguy) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 12:27 pm: Edit

There has to have been a really generous curve. Some people have reported getting 800s with a 9 as an essay subscore! A 9/12! Had that been a school test grade of something it would translate to a 75% !

By Eurostar (Eurostar) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 12:35 pm: Edit

Well...how do you account for AP percentage-right then?

By Canadian_Idol (Canadian_Idol) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 12:58 pm: Edit

woohoo! good news for me...
I hope the scale doesn't change in October.

and those ppl who got 800 with 9/12 on the essay, they must have gotten near perfects for the MC's...at least that would be what I would presume...I might be wrong

By Juice (Juice) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 02:45 pm: Edit

remember the topic

"style is more important than substance" that explains the generous curve although it didnt help me at all cause i suck so bad and english.. o well..

By Shane (Shane) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 01:10 am: Edit

I got 9\12 on essay and 57\60 on mc, which is a raw of 88...and I got an 800. I have to admit i was surprised to see that, i that only low 90's would be 800

By Frick (Frick) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 02:18 am: Edit

11/12 and 56/60 on the MC gave me an 800, with two subscores of 80

By Touky (Touky) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 05:24 pm: Edit

hey..thats not fair..

i got 2 wrong MC and 9/12 on the essay and i got a 770

By Crypto86 (Crypto86) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 06:20 pm: Edit

You guys get score reports back for writing(other than essay score)? We don't and can't get that for any other SAT II I believe.

By Canadian_Idol (Canadian_Idol) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 08:35 pm: Edit

what's the scaled score (200-800) for 94th percentile?

By Canadian_Idol (Canadian_Idol) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 01:42 am: Edit

bump

By Apg (Apg) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 02:17 am: Edit

The curve given in the Real SAT:II subject tests book would appear to be unreliable. See:

http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/cbsenior/stats/qawrit.html

It would appear that, even from there, the test has been made easier.

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Arrgghh!!! The curve was linient?? Damn

I got 7/12 on the essay and 42/60 on the MC's and ended up with a 620. Arrrgghhh!

By Rowan (Rowan) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 07:38 pm: Edit

This seems like a really screwy curve.

I got a 9/12 on the essay (what the hell? writing is easily my best subject...) and 50/60 on multiple choice, which translated to 740.

It was generous at the top, but as you move down, it takes away about 10-20 points for every question you get wrong. Bleh.

By Entropie (Entropie) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 07:54 pm: Edit

11/12 on the essay 47/60 on the MC (oops, stupid sentence errors)

i got a 750, without prep at all.

By Rowan (Rowan) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Random noticing: how is it possible that 1 extra point on the essay and 2 fewer questions wrong is equal to +60 points? (APG: 10/12 essay, 52 multiple choice, 800; Moi: 9/12 essay, 50 multiple choice, 740)

By Haan (Haan) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 10:13 pm: Edit

yeah really weird curve

10/12 essay
50/60 MC

translated to a 780

By Rowan (Rowan) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 10:19 pm: Edit

Hm. Compaing Haan to mine and APG's scores, it would seem that each point on the essay is +40 (!!!) and each point on the multiple choice is +10.

Ew.

By Curiousone (Curiousone) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 10:19 pm: Edit

9/12 essay, 57/60 MC with no omits, 800...well, I certainly was lucky!

By Canadian_Idol (Canadian_Idol) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 01:58 am: Edit

From all the breakdowns that I've seen, the essay component doesn't seem to be all that important...

By Apg (Apg) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 02:53 am: Edit

Well, both of my subscores were 76. What does a nine on the essay translate to? My guess would be 70. In other words, at the top the essay is really important, then after one gets below ~ 51 MC pts, it becomes less so.

I'm still a little confused as to how two 76 subscores translate into an 800 combined.