Is the SAT harder today vs 10 or 20 years ago?
There have been claims to that effect. But, I have not seen any data that conclusively demonstrates this. If scores have gone up, it could be that the test is getting easier; it could be that students are getting smarter or better prepared. Similarly, if scores are going down, the tests could be harder or the students could be dumber. As for the change in scoring, the College Board recently introduced a Writing portion of the SAT. In the past, the top score was 800 (V) + 800 (M) = 1600. Today, the top score = 800 (CR) + 800 (M) + 800 (W) = 2400. Even though students are taking the tests and sending them to colleges, I don’t believe the Writing portion of the SATs will be actively used for a few years. It will take the Admissions Departments a few years to collect student SAT/Writing Test data and correlate them against student performance at that college. After that point, I am sure the Writing test will be actively used. The one trend that is clear is that it has become much more comp
