Last Saturday marked the first SAT administration of the school year, as hundreds of thousands of students across the country take the test to bolster their college applications. Among these were many HHS students taking the test in Westborough.

“It was one of my more hectic SAT experiences. The atmosphere was fine until many guys began pushing and shoving and being overall hooligans. The coordinator yelled at everyone to shut up. It did not leave me calm entering my test,” senior Ryan Palmer said.

Palmer was taking his final test and hoped to boost his August score.

However, one HHS student witnessed a rare student dismissal.

“A kid forgot his ID and was forced to leave. We didn’t really know what to think, in light of the college admissions scandal. For all we knew he could have been a fraudulent test-taker,” Hannah Ianelli said.

Most HHS test takers report the test being easier than in the past sessions. It will remain unclear how this may impact The College Board’s test equating process. The test equating process or “The Curve” is how The College Board ensures that the difficulty of a given test does not disrupt the integrity of student scores. In essence, they score hard SAT’s easier and easier ones harder, thus preventing certain tests forms from being easier to score well on.

“There are three things I fear in life: God, the FBI, and the Curve,” Summers said.

After the drastic drop seen in student test scores, caused by an objectively easier SAT in the June 2017 administration, the test “curves” have been erratic, leaving many students unsure.

“These days, I never know how I did following the test. If I feel really good, the test could have been just easy, and my score will suffer,” Furquan Syed said.

According to the Reddit thread, r/sat, an internet forum to discuss the SAT, the October test form appears to have been a reuse from an August 2018 form used for the with accommodations test. While this community lacks any formal credibility, they have correctly predicted almost every SAT curve since June 2017.

Predicted aspects of the curve are as follows:
(-x, denotes x wrong on the section and number listed is the score associated with x wrong)

Reading:
-3: 370
-4: 370
Writing:
-3: 360
Math:
-1:770
-2:750