Transatlantic test scores

For a long time I was convinced Vincent had not made it to take the SAT at Copenhagen International School on his first Saturday in Denmark (four days after he had arrived). The fact that Stephanie had taken the PRAXIS standardized test for teachers during a trip – in Richmond, VA – had helped give us the idea. And we had paid $100 to land Vincent an international test site and get his scores sent to some five or six colleges. He never let us know in his very few e-mail messages from Denmark that he had made it.

Confirmation of what he told us the day he returned – that he HAD made it, accompanied on the train to the site by his student host, Tim – arrived while Vincent was at Montreat in the form of his paper test scores. We held off on opening them (addressed to him) until he returned.

SAT scores run from 200 to 800 and are “normed” – that is, you can get a “perfect score” of 800 even if you miss some questions if almost everyone else missed those questions too. Critical are the percentile scores. If you scored in the 63rd percentile, that means your score was higher than that for 63 percent of the other test-takers. Vincent used to ace standardized tests, but gradually his scores by percentile – especially in math – have declined. This is a tougher type of test (percentile-wise), because generally only college-bound students are taking it. In an ACT state like Kentucky, only a very small number of high school students who are hoping to go to the few schools like Harvard that insist on receiving SAT scores, and so KY SAT scores would be very high, on average.

When I was a high school student, students took verbal and math sections of the SAT and then the combined total was your total score. After that, the logic section (which Stephanie was apparently quite good at) – with near puzzles – came and went. The College Board, which develops the SAT, then got rid of analogies from the Verbal section. And then the Board created a separate writing section with some writing questions and prompts for students to write an essay (or six essays, Vincent said).

We know more about this than we might because one of my Mother’s main two professional specialties is analyzing standardized test scores. She’s served on College Board committees, and I’ve even gone to College Board annual fall events with her!

As we’d expect, Vincent scored well on what’s now called “Critical Reading” hitting the 85th percentile (with a 630). He began falling behind in math at least in middle school and ostensibly learned little in his first two years of Brown math (Algebra 1 and Geometry). But, he was fresh off retaking Algebra 1, on-line, and two mornings of ACT math review with his Algebra 2 teacher, so his 37th percentile score (with a 480 – test-takers on average do better on the math section, in absolute – non-percentile – terms) was disappointing. Vincent wants to be a writer, and he can be a very good writer, but his writing score was in the 69th percentile (with a 550) (OK, but not great, for an aspiring writer). The fact that Vincent’s penmanship is terrible may subtly affect how essay graders assess his writing. (How they grade these SAT tests with essays in a month – they must have a lot of money and an army of graders – I don’t know.) (Click to enlarge below:)

(To his credit, Vincent now says he was still jet-lagged after just four days in Denmark, four days that started with him sleeping little on the plane – staying up about 40 hours straight altogether. He also says he forgot to switch the College Board SAT/Advanced Placement testing strategy – skipping questions that you haven’t eliminated one or two possible responses on – and instead applied the ACT-style strategy – answer even questions, even guessing if you have no idea – because there are no penalties for guessing. In College Board, there are penalties for guessing – although one of Brown’s guidance counselors had tried to dissuade Vincent from taking the SAT because he said Vincent might get confused by switching strategies – although it’s possible that Jim saying this put it in Vincent’s mind to say it later.)

We’ll try to get Vincent to take Geometry on-line this fall, before he takes the ACT again. If he applies to any of the private schools we had his grades sent to, he’ll have to write an essay. Listening to sample memorable essays that the admissions counselors at Lexington (KY)’s Transylvania University (below) liked, I thought to myself: Vincent could write one of these, if he put his mind to it. We’ll see (possible October hosting might complicated this). The 550 writing score sounds better when you see the percentile score (and Vincent has been doing OK on editing portions of standardized tests – like the questions part of the SAT writing section? – despite or perhaps a little because of my tearing my hair out about his sometimes lax editing of his other writing).

-- Perry