[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

The test got easier, not harder, by most accounts due to the 1996 changes. The antonym verbal section and quantitative comparison math section were dropped. Calculators were permitted for the first time.

Independent of the substantive changes, the recentering also made scores, especially verbal scores, go up. The test was originally designed to have a score of 500 reflect the 50th percentile, but the 50th percentile had fallen to the low 400's. (This was probably due to a larger group of students taking the test, rather than a more select/elite group, as had been the case in the 1960's.) Recentering put the 50th percentile back in the 500s.

Ah. Clearly my memory was totally wrong!