What were the national mean and standard deviation of SAT scores in 1965 and how were they calculated?

1. Why the direct answer is missing: no 1965 figures in these sources

None of the documents returned by the search include a table or statement giving the national mean and standard deviation for the SAT in 1965. The NCES table pointed to in the results covers SAT scores and state breakdowns for 2017, not 1965 ^[1]. Other hits are explainers or pedagogy about how SAT means and standard deviations work in general ^{[5] [6] [4] [3]} and do not report 1965 national summary statistics ^{[5] [6] [4] [3]}.

2. What the provided sources say about how SAT means and SDs are handled

The search results repeatedly describe that SAT scores are treated as approximately normally distributed with a mean and standard deviation that are used for interpretation and percentiles ^{[3] [4]}. Several explainers note that subtest scales have historically had means near 500 and standard deviations near 100 (SAT Math example: mean ≈ 500, SD ≈ 100) or, in legacy descriptions, combined scales reported means such as 1500 with SD ≈ 300 when a different total was in use ^{[7] [2] [3]}. Those are general conventions or illustrative numbers in teaching materials rather than documented historical reporting for 1965 ^{[2] [7] [3]}.

3. How the College Board / test-scaling process produces those numbers

Available materials explain the mechanics: the mean (average) is computed by summing test-takers’ scaled scores and dividing by the number of test-takers; standard deviation is computed as the root-mean-square deviation from that mean (square differences, average them, take square root) and then used to map raw item counts into the scaled score distribution so that a target mean and SD hold for reporting years ^{[4] [3]}. Educational explainers and prep sites emphasize that test publishers often “rescale” tests so the reported mean and standard deviation meet desired reporting conventions each year ^{[4] [3]}.

4. Typical illustrative values and why they’re given in articles

Several teaching sources use illustrative SAT parameters: subtests with mean ≈ 500 and SD ≈ 100, or combined scores with mean values such as 1500 and SD ≈ 300, to demonstrate z-scores, percentiles, and the empirical rule (68–95–99.7%) ^{[7] [2] [3]}. These figures are used for classroom examples rather than as evidence of the 1965 population parameters ^{[2] [3]}.

5. What to consult next to get the exact 1965 numbers

The materials in the search results do not include the 1965 national mean or SD; to obtain definitive 1965 SAT statistics you should review primary historical sources such as archived College Board score reports, technical manuals from the College Board for that test year, or historical tables compiled by educational statisticians (not present in the current results) ^[1]. The NCES table shown here covers 2017 and would not substitute for a 1965 national figure ^[1].

6. Caveats and competing perspectives in available reporting

Prep and tutoring sites treat SAT scale parameters as stable teaching tools (mean ≈ 500, SD ≈ 100 per subtest), which can create the impression that those exact numbers apply to every year; in reality, publishers rescale tests and technical reports document year-by-year statistics ^{[5] [6] [4]}. The search results mix pedagogical examples and general statements about scaling with a few legacy illustrative figures ^{[2] [3]}; none of these items constitute a primary historical record for 1965.

Limitations: the answer above relies only on the search results you supplied and therefore cannot assert the actual 1965 mean or SD because those figures are not present in these sources (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [4] [3]}. If you can provide an archive link to a College Board technical report or a historical NCES/College Board table for 1965, I will extract and summarize the exact mean and standard deviation and show the scaling calculations.