Are some SAT test dates easier than others?
The SAT is standardized to ensure that the level of difficulty remains the same no matter which month you take the test. The SAT is also normalized—a fancy word for “curved.” In school, a curve tends to benefit everyone, but that is not the case with the curve on the SAT. The College Board wants to make sure that the results from an individual test date produce very few low, low scores, very few high, high scores, and a majority of medium-range scores. Raw scores are adjusted within a certain range to produce scaled scores that achieve these statistics. The same raw score can yield scaled scores that differ by 50 points. Each test date has a different group of students taking the test, and those demographics affect the curve. Consider the December and January tests, for example. Typically, seniors who are behind in the admission process, or others who are desperately trying to raise their scores, take this test. For a motivated and bright junior, this can be a good time to take the tes
