\doc\web\2000\01\satiq.txt
Date forwarded: 	Sat, 8 Jan 2000 22:23:36 -0500 (EST)
From:           	Lostrow#aol.com
Date sent:      	Sat, 8 Jan 2000 22:22:24 EST
Subject:        	Re: [Upstream] [Fwd: IQ from college board]


Norman Brown wrote:


     I'd like to understand more clearly how to calculate approximate IQ 
     from College Board scores--the SAT itself, for people before the 
     1990's score inflation.  Are you considering that 100 SD on SAT = 13 
     (or 16) SD on Stanford-Binet?  THat's easy enough, but does it change 
     for higher scores, and does one rely only on verbal SAT?


------------


    According to Arthur Jensen, in 1970 a verbal score of 500 on the SAT was 
approximately equivalent to an IQ of 117.  The SAT verbal section is highly 
correlated with IQ, more so than the math section.  At that time, the 
standard deviation for the SAT verbal was 100 points, which Charles Murray 
apparently calculates as roughly equivalent to 13 points on an IQ test.  The 
progression upwards from 500 would probably not be a straight line, but the 
SD would remain 13.  Thus for seniors in high school, a 600 verbal SAT back 
then would represent an IQ of 130, a 700 score would represent IQ143, 800 ~ 
156 IQ.  The equivalents for juniors or other younger students would of 
course be somewhat different.


    What with renorming in 1995 and making the verbal SAT easier, a current 
score of 500 SAT verbal probably is equivalent to about IQ 104.  In other 
words, the average score has dropped a standard deviation (110 SAT points, or 
13 IQ points).  But only the College Board/ETS knows for sure what the SAT - 
IQ equivalents are.


    Hope this helps.


    L.