I recently went through the 2020 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report. On page 6 of this document is a list of average SAT scores broken down by the proposed major that students claim to want to enter. What would really be interesting is to look at SAT scores of students based on what they actually graduate in. Nevertheless there are a number of surprises in the data.
It is no surprise that the average Math score for a presumptive math major (648) is higher than the average Math score for a presumptive English major (535). What might be surprising is that the average Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) score for prospective math majors (599) also beats that of the average prospective English major (587). One expects the English majors to own that category, but the average prospective Physical Science major (598), Social Science major (595), and Humanities major (589), all do better, though perhaps not significantly so.
The 2020 report was not as informative as the SAT 2016 College-Bound Seniors Total Group Profile Report. So the rest of this information will be taken from the earlier report.
If one wants to do well on the SAT, what sorts of classes help one prepare?
- Take as much English as you can. On average every year of English was worth an additional 25 points on the Mathematics portion of the exam. But it was also worth about the same on Critical Reading and the Writing. (The test has been restructured in the intervening time.) This is not terribly surprising since the tests have always been heavily weighted towards English majors.
- Every year of a foreign language was worth about 30 points on Critical Reading, 20-40 points on Writing, and about 40 points on Mathematics.
- The best language to take for Critical Reading was Latin, followed by Chinese and German. The best language for Mathematics was Chinese, followed by Latin and Japanese. The best language for writing is Latin, followed by Chinese and Greek.
- Taking two years of math is better for the average Mathematics score than taking three years, but it is much better to take at least four. More math courses also help on all other portions of the SAT.
- Surprisingly, natural science courses do not help in the Mathematics section but Social Science courses do slightly.
One can take the totals scores of prospective majors and rank majors by the perceived intelligence needed to get into the major. (Again, it would be more interesting to see the scores of those who actually graduated in a given major). This does not predict the intelligence of any given individual who proposes to major in a subject, but rather the average ability of an aspirant:
- In the 1700s range were: Interdisciplinary studies and Mathematics.
- In the 1600s range were: English, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Foreign Languages, Humanities, Engineering, Computer Science, and Biology.
- In the 1500s range were: Library Sciences, Philosophy, Area Studies, History, Theology, Environmental Sciences, Law, Communications, and Business.
- In the 1400s range were: Performing Arts, Architecture, Psychology, Health, Education, Transportation, and the Military.
- In the 1300s range were: Agriculture, Administration, Family Science, Security, Recreation, and Culinary Services.
- In the 1200s range were: Construction and Technicians.
