SAT Scores Highest in 31 Years

Aug. 29 -- High school students’ math scores on the SAT climbed this year to the highest level since 1969, while verbal scores held steady for a fifth year.

The test company attributed the increase to today’scollege-bound high school students taking more math and science andnursing higher ambitions.

The average math score on the college entrance exam was 514, up3 points from last year. The last time scores were higher was 31years ago, when the average was 517; it dipped as low as 492 in1980 and 1981.

The average verbal score this year was 505, as it has been since1996.

The figures, released today in Washington by the NewYork-based College Board, are based on the SAT scores of thisyear’s 1.26 million high school seniors who took the test sometimeduring high school. The math and verbal sections are each scored ona scale of 200 to 800.

“Over the last decade, male and female students from all ethnicbackgrounds have been taking more pre-calculus, calculus andphysics. These are some of the most rigorous courses available andhelp students develop excellent math skills,” said GastonCaperton, president of the College Board. “The SAT math scores ofstudents who take these courses are well above the nationalaverage.”

‘Not Good Enough’

Better math scores are good but not good enough, said JeanneAllen, founder of the Center for Education Reform, a Washingtonadvocacy group.

“We would expect our college-bound kids to master math andverbal skills, if not show major gains year after year,” Allensaid. “Particularly recognizing they have not learned as much asthey needed to in primary years, and these things are required incollege.”

The three-hour exam, first given in 1926, or the rival ACTentrance exam is required for undergraduate admission to most ofthe nation’s 3,500 four-year colleges and universities.

The $24 test is administered by the Educational Testing Servicein Princeton, N.J. The questions are mostly multiple-choice, andcalculators are permitted.