{"id":16034,"date":"2017-09-26T07:21:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T12:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/?p=16034"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:42:16","slug":"pick-b-for-boris-what-is-a-scaled-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/act\/pick-b-for-boris-what-is-a-scaled-score\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Scaled Score?"},"content":{"rendered":"
When\u00a0I debunked the myth that the ACT is easier than the SAT<\/a>, a central component of my explanation was the fact that both tests are scored on a scale. I didn\u2019t have the space last week to get into the gritty details of scaled scoring, so I\u2019m going to do that here.<\/div>\n
\nIf you\u2019re not a math nerd, you might feel inclined at this moment to run screaming, so let me say this first: I\u2019m not just talking about scaled scoring because\u00a0I\u2019m<\/i>\u00a0a math nerd and find the topic intellectually interesting. What you\u2019ll find if you keep reading is that understanding how these tests are scored will benefit your preparation in some major\u2014and pretty surprising\u2014ways.
\n 
\n

What is a traditional score?<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nScaled scoring throws a lot of students for a loop because most tests in high school are not scaled. On a typical high school test, your score (or \u201cgrade\u201d) has the following two key features:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. It\u2019s based on what percent of questions you got right.<\/li>\n
  2. It doesn\u2019t matter how well your classmates performed on the test.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s say you take a 40-question history test and get 34 questions right. That\u2019s 85% of the questions, so you get a B. It doesn\u2019t matter whether everybody else in your class crushed the test or bombed it\u2014no matter what, you\u2019re getting a B.
    \n 
    \n

    What is a scaled score?<\/h3>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \nScaled tests are radically different from traditional tests because the thing that determines your score on a traditional test\u2014the percent of questions you got right\u2014is completely irrelevant (!). What matters is\u00a0the percent of people who took the same test you did and got fewer questions right.<\/i>
    \nScaled scoring produces dramatically different outcomes than traditional scoring and requires a different mindset. To see why, consider the following example.
    \n 
    \n

    Traditional v scaled score: an in-depth example<\/h3>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \nTen students take a challenging, 100-question test. The number of questions each gets right is logged below:
    \nAhmed: 89
    \nBenny: 88
    \nCarla: 87
    \nDeShawn: 72
    \nEric: 70
    \nFrancois: 65
    \nGarrett: 63
    \nHelen: 61
    \nIrene: 55
    \nJack: 50
    \nOn a traditional test, Ahmed, Benny, and Carla would each get a B, DeShawn and Eric would each get a C, and so on. If this test were scaled and scored like the ACT, however, the scores would look like this:
    \nAhmed: 28 (90th percentile)
    \nBenny: 25 (80th percentile)
    \nCarla: 23-24 (70th percentile)
    \nDeShawn: 21-22 (60th percentile)
    \nEric: 20 (50th percentile)
    \n\u2026and so on. This example shows why scoring on a scale doesn\u2019t really work in a high school setting. Carla did pretty well on this test, getting 87\/100 questions right, yet she ends up with a middling score because two other superstars happened to just barely edge her out. Meanwhile DeShawn, who did way worse than Carla, ends up with almost the same score she got because the rest of his classmates happened to fail even harder than he did!
    \n 
    \n

    Traditional v scaled score: a difference in mindset<\/h3>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \nSuppose the teacher in the above example had made the test easier, with the result that everybody got 10 more questions right. With traditional scoring, this would mean that everybody\u2019s grade would be a full letter higher\u2014a huge improvement!
    \nNotice though, that under scaled scoring,\u00a0nobody\u2019s score would change<\/i>. Even if, for example, the test creators made the reading comp section, say, 10 minutes longer, then you\u00a0and everybody else<\/i>\u00a0would get more questions right respectively.
    \nThis fact should have a huge impact on your mindset as you prep for standardized tests. Your efforts are best put towards getting as much practice as you can so you learn to recognize the common traps and have the advantage going into Test Day.
    \n
    \n
    <\/span><\/span><\/div>
    \n
    \n
    <\/div>

    Boris loves teaching complex problems and helping students overcome their Test Day fears. He brings his sense of humor to the classroom–as well as his love of strategy board games.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

    <\/div><\/div>
    Boris Dvorkin<\/strong>Kaplan Instructor<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When\u00a0I debunked the myth that the ACT is easier than the SAT, a central component of my explanation was the fact that both tests are scored on a scale. I didn\u2019t have the space last week to get into the gritty details of scaled scoring, so I\u2019m going to do that here. If you\u2019re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35875,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions\/35875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}