# SAT question **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sat-question/24383 "2000-07-02T20:18:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cogitoergosum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Cogitoergosum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cogitoergosum)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sat-question/24383/1 "2000-07-02T20:18:25Z")
Recently I read something about how SAT scores are recentered to compensate for varying levels of difficulty of individual tests. Anyway, does this mean that if someone takes a particularly easy version of the test and answers every question correctly, that his score could still be less than 1600 after being recentered? ---
**Author:** ![argyle87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90ced4/32.png) [@argyle87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/argyle87)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sat-question/24383/2 "2000-07-02T20:58:43Z")
Yay SATs! I love the SAT. There is one thing I know for sure about recentering, and that is you don’t have to score perfectly on a given test section to earn an 800 score. I found this out when I got my test back last year. I took the SAT in June of '99, at the end of my junior year. When I got my scores back, I had an 800 in verbal, but I missed 2 questions. On my score sheet my score read “800R”, the “R” obviously showing that my score had been recentered. I don’t know if the reverse is true, but I think the test is fail safe in that a perfect score = 800 all of the time. Recentering is for when the test is too hard. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sat-question/24383/3 "2000-07-02T21:44:03Z")
If I recall correctly, recentering can only improve the score. I took the PSAT twice: once before recentering and once after. My scores differed by 190 points. I did better the second time even before recentering, but I still missed two questions (verbal). My SAT was just barely lower than the second PSAT.