SAT I - ARE SOME TEST DATES HARDER THAN OTHERS?

All evidence points to the answer being a resounding YES. I cannot emphasize the importance of this issue enough!! Try to avoid taking your first SAT I October of Senior year. This appears to be the hardest one of all. I don’t really understand why; the only reason I can offer up is that in an endeavor for the non-profit corporation of the College Board (makers of the SAT and numerous other tests) to make more money they make the October tests a little harder then many students will need to take the November and December tests (they will in other words panic and want to improve their scores). The College Board makes approximately 2 billion dollars or more per year on the SAT alone (my most conservative estimate). Furthermore, it appears there is a hard exam in the spring also. In 2006, the April exam was very difficult. Thus, there appears to be two test dates out of the 8 per year that seem more difficult than others. Every single college counselor that I have spoken to concurs 100% with this assessment. Why make an April test hard? So a student panics and has to take the May and June SAT tests also (more $). There does not appear to be a way yet to predict which SAT in the spring will be hardest. The November and December tests appear to be the fairest SATs of all (I have dozens of these on file and have I have personally taken all of the old SAT's I have). The December SAT appears to be the absolute fairest of all (most of the time - remember there is no statement here that is 100% true 100% of the time)!! Guess why - too late for outgoing seniors to take any more SAT tests so why not make it fair (no more $ to be made). The SAT I is offered 8 times per year, and on each test usually (not always) it appears that often either the Math or the Verbal is harder than the other. I have old tests on file to back this up, and I have many years of National Percentile scores (published by the SAT I), which clearly show me that one section is almost always harder than the other - hence the reason why most colleges accept your highest Math score, highest Verbal score, and hopefully your highest Writing score from the entire total of test dates that you took the tests. Students always notice this at my office when they practice old tests. Another reason that I have heard is that they try to make the October SAT hardest so everyone does not wait until the last minute to take an SAT. This way it encourages students to take one their Junior year, and then if they do poorly they have plenty of time to get help and plenty of test dates left to improve their score. Either way I know one thing for sure, for the last ten plus years or so the October SAT has been harder than the other seven test dates throughout the year. All prospective students must take this seriously.

The ACT seems to be less volatile than the SAT I. The ACT tests seem to be more regular and normalized in their level of difficulty. In other words, the ACT does not seem to have as much variation in the level of hardness as does the SAT I. There are no test dates that I tell students to avoid for the ACT. However, I have seen and have on file some ACT tests that are much harder than others. They are rarer though than the SAT I tests. Basically having harder tests forces students to take tests more often. Some students have asked me if on the SAT I the grading scale used for scoring reflects the level of difficult. Not enough. The grading scale does not help much. Basically, there is not a huge change in SAT grading scales per test.

Also remember there is no definite 100% true statement that I can make regarding the level of difficulty of any SAT I test. The October SAT I is usually more difficult than other SAT I tests but NOT always! The December SAT I is NOT always the friendliest test of all to take, but normally it is a good bet that it is. So, don't worry you can take the SAT I several times with no detriment to your college future ( I would say three to four times is enough).