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Is there a reason for it being 130 - 170, rather then 0 - 40? Is it to make it easier to use the value in some other calculation?

Maxim
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  • The general tests used to have the same 200-800 range of the SAT, while the subject tests went up to 990. – Buzz Dec 19 '17 at 20:36

2 Answers2

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Yes, there are several reasons for the change. Some of them are:

  1. Since the new scale does not superposes with the old one, you are able to differentiate them.

  2. The old scale increases by 10, which could overestimate the difference between two scores. The new scale increase by 1, which helps to decrease the bias when comparing scores.

  3. Another feature that helps to decrease the bias when interpreting results is the not obvious extremes, but still with a comfortable number at the middle of the scale.

Source

The Doctor
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    So the reasoning for the seemingly arbitrary 130 added is to make the test scores not immediately obvious? Because 0 - 40 whouldn't have overlapped the original either, and the increment would be the same – Maxim Dec 19 '17 at 22:09
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What The Doctor said, and it might also have something to do with LSAT scoring being on a scale 120-180. The LSAT is generally a more difficult test than the GRE, so perhaps these are supposed to be comparable.

Elizabeth Henning
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