What Is a Good SAT Score? A Bad SAT Score? An Excellent SAT Score?

What is a decent SAT score? You took the SAT, recovered your scores, and now need to know how you did. Or on the other hand possibly you need to comprehend what score to go for next time. In this guide, we talk about how to make sense of how your SAT scores pile facing those of the various test takers. We’ll at that point help you figure out what a decent SAT score for you depends on the schools you are keen on. At long last, we give the SAT score scopes of 38 mainstream schools and talk about what to do if your score ends up being lower than you anticipated.

What’s a Good SAT Score?

The SAT score extend is 400-1600 for your all out score, and 200-800 for every one of your two area scores. One segment score is Math, while the other is a joined Reading and Writing score called Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW). As you would expect, the higher your score, the better you did contrasted with the various test takers. However, is there a specific SAT score cutoff that denotes a “decent” score?

To figure out what makes for good SAT scores in respect to every other person, you have to realize precisely how SAT scoring functions. Your all out score out of 1600 (just as your two area scores out of 800) relates to a percentile positioning. Your SAT percentile reveals to you what level of understudies you scored superior to. So on the off chance that you got a 60th percentile score, you’ve scored superior to 60% of all test takers! The mean, or normal, SAT composite score is 1068. Note that the test is purposely structured with the goal that the mean score drifts around 1000 on the 1600-point scale—around 500 for each area. The normal score for Math is 531, and the normal score for EBRW is 536.

SAT scores pursue an ordinary conveyance. This implies understudy execution will in general group around the center of the scale (1000 is the midpoint between the base score of 400 and the greatest score of 1600). Far less test takers score toward the higher and lower finishes of the scale.

As should be obvious from the percentiles and comparing scores, more understudies score toward the center of the scale than at the best or base.

For instance, a score bounce from 1000 to 1100 (100) moves you from the 39th to the 58th percentile—so you’ve climbed past about a whole fifth of test takers! Be that as it may, moving 100 from 1250 to 1350 just brings you up 10%, from the 81st to the 91st percentile. At long last, moving from 1450 to 1550, a 100-point edge close to the highest point of the scale, nets you just about 2%!

As far as what makes for good SAT scores dependent on this outline, you definitely realize that 1070 is about normal, so anything over that would be a better than expected score. A 1250 spots you in the 81st percentile, that is, in the best fifth of test takers, which is great. A 1350 places you in the best 9%, making it a solid score. A 1400 is in the 94th percentile, the best 6% of all test takers. Also, any score 1500+ places you in the pined for best 1%!

Conversely, anything lower than a 1070 is an underneath normal score. For instance, a 950, which is in the 31st percentile, places you in the base third of test takers. Also, a 900, which is in the 23rd percentile, places you in the base fourth. Not very good relatively. Here’s a diagram demonstrating the SAT score percentiles for both the Math and EBRW areas. The conveyances are entirely comparative, however there are some slight contrasts.

For instance, less individuals do incredibly well on EBRW than on Math. You can tell this is the situation in light of the fact that a 750 is a 99th percentile score for EBRW, which means you’re in the best 1% of test takers. In any case, that equivalent score is in the 96th percentile for Math, setting you just in the best 4%.

What’s a Good SAT Score for You?

Up until now, we’ve talked about how your SAT score and relating percentile positioning shows how you contrast and other test takers. Be that as it may, how well you did contrasted and every other person isn’t the most imperative thing for you. What is increasingly imperative is the thing that makes a decent SAT score for you by and by, in light of the schools you are keen on. A 1280 is a 84th percentile score, which means you scored superior to 84% of test takers. In this way, a 1280 would be a strong score for schools, for example, the University of Cincinnati (normal SAT score: 1233), ASU (normal: 1232), and Temple University (normal: 1221).

Be that as it may, it would be an exceptionally low score for profoundly specific organizations, for example, MIT, Caltech, Duke, the University of Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. Obviously, not every person is endeavoring to get into very particular schools. A score of 1040 (just underneath the 1070 normal) is strong for less particular schools, for example, Indiana University Northwest (normal SAT score: 1015) and CSU Stanislaus (normal: 1005).

To entirety up, a great SAT score is a score that makes you focused for the schools you need to visit. It’s likewise important that the higher your test scores are, the more probable universities offering merit grants are to offer one to you. For the motivations behind this guide, we’re going to concentrate essentially on making sense of the score you requirement for confirmation (not grants), however it’s something to remember. For more data, look at our manual for grants dependent on SAT/ACT scores.

Something else to consider is that a high test score can enable you to get admitted to specific schools in the event that you have a lower GPA than what their average concedes have. (In any case, this won’t help you such a great amount at very particular establishments—they anticipate that understudies should have high stamps no matter how you look at it!)

Great SAT Scores for Popular Schools

To enable you to decide your objective score, we’re giving you a SAT score outline with the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for 2018 for 38 well known schools. I’ve additionally given the present US News positioning and acknowledgment rate to give you a thought of how particular each school is. All schools are masterminded arranged by positioning.

Imagine a scenario in which My SAT Score Is Too Low. 3 Strategies

Imagine a scenario in which your SAT score winds up being lower than your objective score. What would it be a good idea for you to do? In this circumstance, you have a couple of alternatives to consider. We’ll go over them here and help you make sense of which one is best for you.

System 1: Retake the SAT

On the off chance that you have room schedule-wise to do extra arrangement for the SAT and retake it, this is presumably your most clear system. Be that as it may, remember that in the event that you truly need a superior SAT score, you’ll have to put a ton of time into prep and truly deal with shoring up your shortcomings. These are the assessed time gauges for various all out score upgrades (not per area) on the SAT:

0-30 point improvement: 10 hours

30-70 point improvement: 20 hours

70-130 point improvement: 40 hours

130-200 point improvement: 80 hours

200-330 point improvement: 150 hours +

Technique 2: Don’t Worry About It

In the event that you were simply under your objective score (think inside 50), you may not really need to do anything if that marginally lower score is as yet focused. For instance, on the off chance that you were going for a 1560 for your most specific school, Dartmouth, yet got a 1530, you’d in any case be in the focused range for that school.

Contingent upon how soon you’ll be applying to school, it may bode well to utilize the time and vitality you’d spend getting ready for and retaking the test on different pieces of your application.

In the event that you were in excess of 50 points shy of your SAT objective score, think about Strategy 1 or 3.

Want to avoid silly mistakes on the SAT test? Please read our post about it. You will learn how to reach these scores and percentiles.

Methodology 3: Adjust Your List of Schools

In case you’re 50+ focuses shy of your objective score and don’t have room schedule-wise to retake the test, you may need to make a few changes in your rundown of schools. While you unquestionably should in any case apply to your fantasy schools as achieve schools, it’s insightful to cushion out your rundown of match and wellbeing schools to be in like with the lower scores.

For example, perhaps you were going for 1510 however got 1410. With your objective score, you had NYU (center half: 1290-1490) as one of your match schools. In any case, with a real score of 1410, this school is currently to a greater degree an achieve (its 75th percentile is in excess of 50 points higher than your score). You likewise had Lehigh University (center half: 1270-1430) as a wellbeing school, however with your present score, it’s better as a match school.

At long last, you should seriously think about including some extra security schools that adjust better to your 1410 score, for example, American University (center half: 1180-1350) and Penn State (center half: 1160-1340). For more posts about the SAT prep, you can read our SAT blog.