There has been some chatter that the SAT a few weeks back was very difficult.
This is the first time the new test went "large" and was administered in the States as well as international. By tweaking the questions a bit harder, College Board has a bit more room to play with at the top of the curve, in order to keep the scoring comparable to past tests - a core objective of any metric. If the test is objectively hard then it will be scored on a more lenient scoring table. A bit like a handicap/slope rating of a golf course.
If the test was really easy then loads of kids would have had full marks on the math and you can't have 10% of the kids get a perfect 800. The test being "hard" is kind of the point - if most kids got 90% correct you would end up with a terrible metric, akin to an inflated GPA. While the scoring on the new test is indeed a bit of a black box, the headline scores will be statistically massaged to be directly comparable with past iterations. Even last year the complaint was that the test seemed harder than the practice tests but most scores came in as expected.
For any of our many students who sat this test, let us know how you did when the scores come out.
