Georgia's SAT II Subject Test Results for 1996-97

The analysis provided here is based on two data sources, plus the Board of Regents recommended passing scores. The data on Georgia SAT II test results comes from ""1996 College-Bound Seniors: A Profile of SAT Program Test Takers, Georgia Report," published by The College Board. The SAT I composite score percentiles come from "http://www.collegeboard.org/sat/html/totalvm.html", a web page that contains a table showing the percentiles for composite scores in 10 point increments.

Note first that the Georgia students who took the SAT II tests last year were consistently in the top fifteen percent of all SAT I test takers. In other words, this is an even more elite group than the group of all students (nation-wide) who take the SAT II tests. In particular, the 242 students who took the SAT II in Physics were, on average, at the 94th percentile. This is a very bright group of students. Interestingly, only 54% of them passed the SAT II, according to the Board of Regents criteria.

Table 1. Georgia Student Performance on SAT II Subject Tests

Subject Test and Number of Test Takers in Georgia

Average SAT composite score and percentile

Average SAT II Subject Scores

BoR Passing Score

Approximate Percent Passing
Writing (2055)

1276

88%

603

520

78%

American History (787)

1264

87%

613

560

71%

Math IC (524)

1223

87%

586

500

84%

Biology (428)

1256

86%

600

485

78%

Chemistry (499)

1335

93%

 628

540

83%

Physics (242)

1346

94%

 608

590

54%

How would these students have fared on the new admissions requirements? If it may be assumed that the proportion passing the individual tests represents the probability that a given student would pass that test, then the percent that would have "passed" all four of the tests in the initial year of the new policy is 39%. In other words, fewer than 40% of these very, very good students would be allowed into the admissions pool for the University System of Georgia. That also assumes that they all chose Chemistry as their science test, since the passing percentage was much higher for chemistry than for physics. If they had been required to pass all six of the tests, only 16% would have been allowed into the admissions pool.

This report contributed by Leon McGinnis

Last updated 9/18/97

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