SAT Score Range Whats a Good SAT Score for Colleges

9Are you wondering if your SAT scores are good enough for your dream school? In this post, well help you figure out the SAT scores you should aim for, the SAT score range you need for top colleges, and answer your frequently asked questions about the SAT score scale. As a bonus, our quick diagnostic quiz will help you predict your SAT scores. Table of Contents What Is a Good SAT Score? What Is a Good SAT Score for College Admissions and the Ivy League? What Is a Good SAT Score Range for Scholarships? FAQ: SAT Scores What are the different types of SAT scores? Why are there so many different scores? What are SAT percentiles, and how can I find my percentile? How does the SAT score scale compare to other tests (PSAT, ACT, and more)? How does the adversity index impact my score? How can I improve my SAT scores? Diagnostic Quiz: How Will You Score on the SAT? What Is a Good SAT Score? A good SAT score range in senior year is 1200-100+ for sophomores. You can get a more detailed breakdown in the video below: SAT Score Scale: The Basics You’ll receive two sectional scores, one Math and one Verbal (combined from the Reading and Writing sections). Math SAT score range: 200-800 points Verbal SAT score range: 200-800 points The average SAT score on each section is 500 points, give or take 30 points (the average composite score in 2018 was 1068). Your Math and Reading/Writing sectional scores add up to a composite (combined) score. The highest composite score you can earn on the SAT is 1600 points. Composite SAT score range: 90-1550 Vanderbilt University170-1520 University of California - Berkeley1290-1510 Emory University170 Carnegie Mellon University1330-1510 University of California - Los Angeles1200-1500 Tufts University190 Brandeis University1310-190 University of California - Santa Barbara1290-1500 University of California - Irvine1195 - 120-1530 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute1320-1500 Tulane University180 University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign1270-150 Lehigh University1330-1500 Northeastern University1360-1530-110 Ohio State University - Columbus1290 University of Texas - Austin1170-130 Yeshiva University110-1330-160 Clemson University1220-1390 Purdue University - West Lafeyette1190-1390 Southern Methodist University1280-160 Brigham Young University - Provo1190-150 University of Pittsburgh1270-160 Texas AM University - College Station1160 Virginia Tech1100-1320 American University1220-1380 Baylor University1190-1360 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick1190-150 Indiana University - Bloomington1150-1360 Michigan State University1110-1250 Stevens Institute of Technology1330-190 Stony Brook University -SUNY1220-190 University of Vermont1180-1360 Florida State University1200-1350 Saint Louis University1170-1390 University of Alabama1060-1280 Drexel University1170-1380 Loyola University Chicago1120-1310 University at Buffalo - SUNY1110 Auburn University1150-1310 Good SAT Scores for the Ivy League Weve also put together a table showing the middle 50% SAT score range for Ivy League schools. UniversitySAT Score Range (25th-75th percentiles) Brown190-1550 Columbia120-1560 Harvard120-1550 Princeton120-1590 For more information on a few of these top schools scores and what theyre looking for, click on each schools name in the table above for an in-depth look! What Is a Good SAT Score Range for Scholarships? Many colleges around the country have what are called guaranteed scholarships. These scholarships are automatically awarded to accepted students who have earned a certain SAT score. A larger number of colleges also have general merit scholarships. These scholarships have the same SAT requirements, but you are in competition with other accepted students for a limited number of awards. These scholarships may require a separate application, along with a personal or themed essay. Scholarships based on academic merit often have minimum SAT scores provided in their descriptions. Take note of any SAT score requirements you find during your research, then average all those scores. The result is your minimum SAT score goal for scholarships. To see the types of scholarships out there, check out our article Whats a Good SAT Score for Scholarships? Frequently Asked Questions About SAT Scores What are the different types of SAT scores? 1. Reading, Writing and Language, Math Test Scores First, there are three test scores for the Reading test, Writing and Language test, and Math test. Each one of these tests will be scored on a range of 10 to 909 41011 4009 3908 3806 3704 3603 3502 3402 3301 3201 3101 3001- 2901- 2801- 2701- 2601- 2501- 2401- 2301- 2201- 2101- 2001- How does the SAT score scale compare to other tests? PSAT vs. SAT Score Scale PSAT scores range from 320-1520. Because its an easier test, a perfect PSAT score corresponds to a 1520 on the SAT. But otherwise, your PSAT score will correspond to what you’d likely get on the SAT if you took it right after the SAT (not as in the very same day, but you know what I mean). The PSAT for sophomores and juniors has two primary functions: to see if you qualify for the National Merit Program and to give you a sense of what your likely SAT score will be. Unless you aim to score in the top 2%, you shouldn’t worry about the scholarship. You should, though, take your PSAT score seriously because it will let you know how much you’ll need to prep for the SAT to hit your target score. You can improve your performance on the actual SAT by prepping and practice; or, if you slack off, your SAT score might be lower than what your PSAT score would suggest. ACT vs. SAT Score Scale ACT and SAT score ranges are about as dry a topic as they come. But there’s actually some serious drama behind this. Right now, the ACT is pretty much fuming that the College Board decided to release an SAT to ACT score translation without consulting them. (Hey College Board–why you no invite me to party?) So the information I’m about to share is somewhat provisional; it might change if the ACT decides to release its own concordance tables (spoiler alert: the College Board won’t be invited). That said, for now, this is what colleges will most likely go on: ACT to New SAT to Old SAT Score Conversion Chart. As you can see from the tables on this score conversion chart, a perfect score on the ACT is a perfect score on the SAT. Though an ACT score of 35 works out to a 1540 on the SAT, remember that the ACT doesn’t have nearly as large of a score range as the SAT (36 increments from 1-36 vs. 120 increments for the SAT from 400-1600). Old SAT vs. New SAT Score Scale The old (pre-March 2016) and new SAT tests are very different; a student who scored in the 95% on the old Math section might not even crack 80% on the new one, or vice versa. With a table to show which score on the old SAT corresponds to which score on the new SAT, colleges can get a real sense of how students who took only the old test did in comparison to those who took the new test. Though the tests are pretty different, another way to compare the two is by using SAT score percentiles. If a score of 800 used to correspond to the top 1%, then the same should apply to the new test. How does the adversity index impact my score? If youve been paying attention to SAT news lately, you may have heard about College Boards new adversity index. This is a measurement that they will give to colleges to contextualize your scores in terms of relative advantage/disadvantage. By creating this new measure, the College Board hopes to show how students from low-income and minority populations perform compared to other students from similar backgrounds. While this has been controversial, the adversity index will not affect SAT scores themselves. Instead, what it will give schools is an understanding of your percentiles based on both your Environmental Context and your High School Context. Again, this wont change your score at all, but instead give universities one more measure with which to interpret your scores. How can I improve my SAT scores? Check out this video for tips to boost your score, and read on for resources to help you before and during test day! Make use of a SAT study scheduleknowing how to study for the SAT is a huge factor in improving your score! Take a free, full-length SAT practice test to establish a baseline score. Review our tips for pacing yourself during an exam. Find ways to remain calm when a question flusters you. Learn how to avoid careless mistakes in the future. (Magooshs SAT study guide has great tips to help with this!) Diagnostic Quiz: How Will You Score on the SAT? document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { if(!window.jQuery) alert("The important jQuery library is not properly loaded in your site. Your WordPress theme is probably missing the essential wp_head() call. You can switch to another theme and you will see that the plugin works fine and this notice disappears. If you are still not sure what to do you can contact us for help."); }); Quiz Starts Here: This quiz has one page for each SAT section (3 total): Writing and Language ("English"), Math, and Reading. This quiz will take about 10-20 minutes to complete, so grab some scratch paper and a calculator, and do your best! 1English112Math223Reading33Page 1 of 3English Instructions After reading the passage below, choose the answer to each question that most effectively improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a "NO CHANGE" option. Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is. The common setup is researchers will divide subjects into two groups, one of which is allowed to use the Internet after finishing the task, the other of which must finish the task until completion. Yet another common setup allows subjects unfettered use of the Internet when trying to complete the task. Not surprisingly this last group acted 1 worse on tests of productivity. 2 Not so surprisingly the group that used 10 minutes of web access as an incentive, tended not only to finish the task sooner than the group without any web access but also 3 worked with more vigor when their Internet time was up. 1. A) NO CHANGEB) the worstC) badlyD) more poorly 2. Within the context of the paragraph, the underlined portion should be changed to which of the following? A) NO CHANGEB) Unsurprisingly C) Less surprisinglyD) What is surprising is that 3. A) NO CHANGEB) to workC) they worked D) to be workingPage 2 of 3Math Instructions Solve the problem and then choose the correct answer. You may use a calculator on this portion of the SAT Mathematics Test. 1. The length of Rectangle WXYZ is increased 20% and the width is decreased 20%. The area of the resulting figure is what percent that of Rectangle WXYZ? A) 4%B) 96%C) 100%D) 120% 2. Mike saved 20% on a shirt before taxes. If he paid $60 for the shirt, what was the original price of the shirt? A) $48B) $64.60C) $75D) $80 3. Solution X is 10 percent alcohol by volume, and solution Y is 30 percent alcohol by volume. How many milliliters of solution Y must be added to 200 milliliters of solution X to create a solution that is 25 percent alcohol by volume? A) 250/3B) 500/3 C) 480D) 600Page 3 of 3Reading Instructions The passage below is followed by a number of questions. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question based on what is stated or implied int he passage or passages and in any accompanying graphics (such as a table or graph). Metamorphosis I recently dug up a photograph of myself from freshman year of college that made me smile. I have on the wrong shoes, the wrong socks, the wrong checkered shirt tucked the wrong way into the wrong slacks. I look like what I was: a boy sprung from a middlebrow burg who affected a secondhand preppiness. I look nervous. Compare that image to one from my senior-class dinner: now I am attired in a gray tweed jacket with a green plaid bow tie and a sensible button-down shirt, all purchased at the Yale Co-op. I look confident, and more than a bit contrived. What happened in between those two photographs is that I experienced, then overcame, what the poet Meena Alexander has called â€Å"the shock of arrival.† When I was deposited at the wrought-iron gates of my residential college as a freshman, I felt more like an outsider than I’d thought possible. It wasn’t just that I was a small Chinese boy standing at a grand WASP temple; nor simply that I was a hayseed neophyte puzzled by the refinements of college style. It was both: color and class were all twisted together in a double helix of felt inadequacy. For a while I coped with the shock by retreating to a group of my own kind—not follow Asians, but fellow marginal public school grads who resented the rah-rah Yalies to whom everything came effortlessly. Aligning myself this way was bearable—I was hiding, but at least I could place myself in a long tradition of underdog exiles at Yale. Aligning myself by race, on the other hand, would have seemed too inhibiting. I know this doesn’t make much sense. I know also that college, in the multicultural era, is supposed to be where the deracinated minority youth discovers the â€Å"person of color† inside. To a point, I did. I studied Chinese, took an Asian American history course, a seminar on race politics. But ultimately, college was where the unconscious habits of my adolescent assimilation hardened into self-conscious strategy. 1. In the first paragraph, the change the author observes in his former self can best be described as one from A) uncertainty to despairB) confidence to conformityC) awkwardness to poise D) immaturity to jadedness 2. The author primarily attributes his â€Å"’shock of arrival’† to A) unfamiliarity with his surroundingsB) awareness of his differencesC) difficulty making lasting friendshipsD) unease as to his future direction 3. The â€Å"self-conscious strategy† primarily describes the author’s attempt to A) reject an element of his pastB) posses a greater awareness of a former tendencyC) embrace his ethnic identity by taking certain coursesD) retreat from social activities through academics Loading... //jQuery(document).ready(function(){ document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { var question_ids = "51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59"; WatuPROSettings[12] = {}; WatuPRO.qArr = question_ids.split(','); WatuPRO.exam_id = 12; WatuPRO.post_id = 7194; WatuPRO.store_progress = 0; WatuPRO.requiredIDs="0".split(","); WatuPRO.hAppID = "0.88626800 1580797340"; var url = "https://magoosh.com/hs/wp-content/plugins/watupro/show_exam.php"; WatuPRO.examMode = 2; WatuPRO.numCats =3; WatuPRO.siteURL="https://magoosh.com/hs/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; WatuPROIntel.init(12); WatuPRO.inCategoryPages=1;}); How did you do on the Diagnostic Quiz above? What else do you want to know about SAT score ranges? Let us know in the comments! Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.