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Does anybody know how rare it is to get a 1600 on the SAT? I thought it was something like 400 kids each year but that seems a little low considering there are millions of kids that take the test every year. Just wondering cuz a girl in my grade got a 1600 and I can't remember anybody else from our school getting a perfect score in the last few years.

By Tired_Student (Tired_Student) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 08:37 pm: Edit

It is rare. I think less than 1 percent. I could be wrong though

By Ohlookasquirrel (Ohlookasquirrel) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 08:48 pm: Edit

It's always less than seven out of ten thousand, so that's less than 0.07%, a lot less than one percent.

Last year for example, it jumped a LOT (previously there had been 500-600 perfect scores a year) to 897 perfects out of 1.4 million test takers, meaning 0.064% got a 1600.

I don't know how I got one, christ.

By Ilovemath (Ilovemath) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Hmmm... Are you talking about a 1600 in one testing, or best score from each section? If it is best from each section, the number is a lot higher.

By Ohlookasquirrel (Ohlookasquirrel) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 12:48 am: Edit

Those stats are from getting a 1600 in one sitting, though not necessarily the first time around.

By Tsunashima1 (Tsunashima1) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 09:51 am: Edit

What would be interesting is the number of 1600 first-timers.

By Ohlookasquirrel (Ohlookasquirrel) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Yeah I don't know, I got one and I know one person who got one, but other than that I think a lot of people take it twice.

By Tsunashima1 (Tsunashima1) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 02:50 pm: Edit

I'm guessing a majority of them are first-timers though. I think most retakers would settle for 15 somethings.