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From: ewa@sdcc3.UUCP (Eric Anderson)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: Northwestern?/caltech
Message-ID: <3045@sdcc3.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 03:05:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcc3.3045
Posted: Tue Oct 22 03:05:38 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 01:45:41 EDT
References: <1730@watdcsu.UUCP> <249@laidbak.UUCP> <990@oddjob.UUCP> <112@cher.UUCP> <3032@sdcc3.UUCP> <760@adobe.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewa@sdcc3.UUCP (Eric Anderson)
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center
Lines: 31
Summary: will this ever die?

In article <760@adobe.UUCP> greid@adobe.UUCP (Glenn Reid) writes:
>>OK. My SAT Math score was 780. (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}

No, I am perfectly correct: In any given year at least one person will get a
perfect score (I know three such people from my high school). Thus 800 will be
the top and perfect score. In a year when the test is hard, 1 wrong tends to
be 780, if the test is easier 1 wrong tends to be 770. Moving down the scale
this distinction is not so easy, but at the very end it changes very little.


Eric Anderson, UC San Diego         {elsewhere}!ihnp4!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc3!ewa
Home: (619)453-7315       Work: (619)586-1201       White House: (202)456-1414