through E), and your job, of course, is to choose the best answer. Your raw score is
equal to the number of questions you got right minus a fraction of the number of
questions you answered wrong, rounded to the nearest whole number. If you leave a
question blank, it isn’t counted as either right or wrong. For example, let’s say that
of the 75 questions, you got 42 right, 26 wrong, and you left 7 blank. They figure out
your raw score as follows:
42 − (26) = 35.5 — round to → raw score = 36Then they convert this raw score to a scaled score. The SAT Subject Test scores
are reported on a 200 to 800 scale (in multiples of 10). So your raw score of 36
may be converted to a scaled score of, say, 650. This is the score that’s reported to
you.
How would this score of 650 measure up? The averages vary slightly from
administration to administration, but the average score on the November 1995 SAT
Physics Subject Test was 653, the average score on the May 2000 test was 635, and
the average score for 2007 college-bound seniors was 647, so a score of 650
would be considered at or above average. Notice that you can get more than a third
of the questions wrong and still get an average score! Naturally, different colleges
have different admission criteria. Some may report the average scores of their
entering freshmen, so talk with your school counselor and check with the
admissions offices of the colleges in which you’re interested to see if they release
their SAT averages.
Some Test-Taking Tips
When approaching the practice tests or the actual SAT Physics Subject Test, there
are some helpful strategies you can use to help maximize your score.
Know the Directions to Part A Now
There are two parts to the SAT Physics Subject Test: Part A and Part B. Part A,
which accounts for the first set of questions (typically from 12 to 23), consists of
several groups of questions (typically 2 to 4 per group). The questions within any