HOW IS THE SAT SCORED (New SAT)?

Question

i no that it is out of 2400, and each section (3) is 800 points. the writing is on a 0-12 scale. but if u receive a 12 is that the full 800 points? also, i no u get one point for correct answers and -1/4 point for incorrect ones....but there is not 1600 answers on the test!? how does this work? THANK YOU!

Answer 1

Hi,

Each section of the test is scaled.  The scales change slightly from year to year.  Here is an example.  The math section (a couple of years ago) had 55 questions in all, 45 multiple choice and 10 constructed response.  Multiple choice, you earn zero for no answer, 1 point for correct answer, and -0.25 as you noted for a wrong answer.  On the constructed response, it is zero for no answer OR wrong answer and +1 for a correct answer; there is no penalty for wrong answers in constructed response.  For that year, you needed only about 23 correct to earn a 500 score in math.  Half (27.5 points) would get you a 570 that year.  If you are trying for 800, you need to get all of them right.  Here's something funny - in math if you get zero points, you don't get the minimum 200 score.  You get about 280.  It takes a negative score, worse than pure guessing, to get near a 200.  You can find some of this information in any of the SAT practice guidebooks (Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc.)