Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site adobe.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!Glacier!adobe!greid From: greid@adobe.UUCP (Glenn Reid) Newsgroups: net.jokes Subject: Re: Northwestern?/caltech Message-ID: <760@adobe.UUCP> Date: Sat, 19-Oct-85 21:19:02 EDT Article-I.D.: adobe.760 Posted: Sat Oct 19 21:19:02 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 21-Oct-85 07:12:33 EDT References: <1730@watdcsu.UUCP> <249@laidbak.UUCP> <990@oddjob.UUCP> <112@cher.UUCP> <3032@sdcc3.UUCP> Reply-To: greid@adobe.UUCP (Glenn Reid) Organization: Adobe Systems, Palo Alto Lines: 30 Summary: >>>P.S. The median math S.A.T. score of Caltech students is 800. No joke. >> >>OK, OK. I'll bite. Explain to me how the median score can be 800. I'm >>under the impression that 800 is the maximum possible score. Since the >>median score is defined as the score that divides the distribution into >>halves (50% above, 50% below), I fail to see how this is possible. Go ahead. >>Enlighten me. > >OK. My SAT Math score was 780. I didn't get in to Caltech. (780=1 wrong) > >Eric Anderson, UC San Diego Wrong. The scores on the SAT's have nothing to do with how many you "get wrong". They are standard deviations from the statistical mean. This is to say that the median score of all the folks who took that particular test is declared to be 500. The lowest score on the exam is declared to get a 200, and the highest score on the exam gets an 800. The breaks are every 10 points on this scale (i.e. 800, 790, 780, etc.) but just because you got an 800 doesn't mean you got them all right, necessarily. Neither does 780 mean "1 wrong". Nonetheless, if everybody admitted to Caltech scored extremely high on the SAT's, they all could very easily have gotten the same score (800) which is just a certain number of standard deviations above the average. Caltech usually has an entire undergraduate population of around 700 students, from what I understand. Glenn Reid {ihnp4!decwrl!adobe!greid} -- There are stopped jobs.