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

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What is a good SAT score? You took the SAT, got your scores back, and now want to know how you did. Or maybe you want to know what score to aim for next time.

In this guide, we discuss how to figure out how your SAT scores stack up against those of all the other test takers. We'll then help you determine what a good SAT score for you is based on the colleges you are interested in. Finally, we provide the SAT score ranges of more than 50 popular schools and discuss what to do if your score turns out to be lower than you expected.

 

What's a Good SAT Score Compared to the Entire Country?

The SAT score range is 400–1600 for your total score and 200–800 for each of your two section scores. One section score is Math; the other is Reading and Writing.

As you would expect, the higher your score, the better you did compared with all the other test takers. But is there a certain SAT score cutoff that marks a "good" score?

To determine what makes for good SAT scores relative to everyone else's, you need to know exactly how SAT scoring works. Your total score out of 1600 (and each of your two section scores out of 800) corresponds to a percentile ranking. Your SAT percentile tells you what percentage of students you scored the same as or better than. So, for example, if you got a 60th percentile score, you've scored better than 60% of all test takers!

The mean, or average, SAT composite score is 1050. Note that the test is deliberately designed so that the mean score hovers around 1000 on the 1600-point scale—about 500 per section. The average score for Math is 521, and the average score for Reading and Writing is 529.

SAT scores follow a normal distribution. This means that student performance tends to cluster around the middle of the scale (1000 is the halfway point between the minimum score of 400 and the maximum score of 1600). Far fewer test takers score toward the higher and lower ends of the scale.

Here's an abbreviated SAT score chart with percentiles for 2022 SAT composite scores so you can check out the score distribution for yourself:

SAT Composite Score (Out of 1600) Percentile (2022)
1600 99+
1550 99
1500 98
1450 96
1400 93
1350 90
1300 86
1250 81
1200 75
1150 69
1100 63
1050 53
1000 45
950 37
900 29
850 22
800 14
750 8
700 3
650 1
600 and below 1-

 

As you can see from the percentiles and corresponding scores, more students score toward the middle of the scale than at the top or bottom.

For example, a score jump from 1000 to 1100 (100 points) moves you from the 45th to the 63rd percentile—so you've moved up past nearly an entire fifth of test takers! But moving 100 points from 1250 to 1350 only brings you up about 10%, from the 81st to the 90th percentile. Finally, moving from 1450 to 1550, a 100-point margin near the top of the scale, nets you only about 3%!

In terms of what makes for good SAT scores based on this chart, you already know that 1050 is about average, so anything above that would be an above-average score. A 1250 places you in the 81st percentile—that is, in the top fifth of test takers—which is very good. A 1350 puts you in the top 10%, making it a strong score. A 1400 is in the 93rd percentile, or the top 7% of all test takers. And any score 1500+ puts you in the coveted top 1%–2%!

By contrast, anything lower than a 1050 is a below-average score. For example, a 950, which is in the 37th percentile, places you in the bottom third of test takers. And a 900, which is in the 29th percentile, places you nearly in the bottom fourth—not so great comparatively.

Here's a chart showing the SAT score percentiles for both the Math and Reading and Writing sections. The distributions are pretty similar, but there are some slight differences.

For example, fewer people do really, really well on Reading and Writing than on Math. You can tell this is the case because a 750 is a 98th percentile score for Reading and Writing, meaning you're in the top 2% of test takers. But that same score is in the 95th percentile for Math, placing you only in the top 5%.

SAT Score (Out of 800) Math Percentile (2022) Reading and Writing Percentile (2022)
800 99 99+
750 95 98
700 91 93
650 85 85
600 76 73
550 63 59
500 46 43
450 33 27
400 19 13
350 6 3
300 1 1
250 and below 1– 1–

 

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What's a Good SAT Score for You?

So far, we've discussed how your SAT score and corresponding percentile ranking show how you compare with other test takers. But how well you did compared with everyone else isn't the most important thing for you.

What is more important is what makes a good SAT score for you personally, based on the schools you are interested in.

A 1280 is an 84th percentile score, meaning that you scored the same as or better than 84% of test takers; therefore, this would be a solid score for schools such as Arizona State University (average SAT score: 1245) and Temple University (average SAT score: 1245).

However, it would be a very low score for highly selective institutions, such as MIT, Princeton, Duke, the University of Chicago, and Johns Hopkins.

Of course, not everyone is trying to get into highly selective schools. A score of 1040 (just below the 1050 average) is solid for less selective colleges such as Indiana University Northwest (average SAT score: 1050) and Texas A&M Commerce (average SAT score: 1050).

To sum up, a good SAT score is a score that makes you competitive for the schools you want to attend.

It's also worth noting that the higher your test scores are, the more likely colleges offering merit scholarships are to give one to you. For the purposes of this guide, we're going to focus primarily on figuring out the score you need for admission (not scholarships), but it's something to keep in mind. For more information, check out our guide to scholarships based on SAT and ACT scores.

Another thing to consider is that a high test score can help you get admitted to certain schools if you have a lower GPA than what their typical admits have. (However, this won't help you so much at highly selective institutions—they expect students to have high marks across the board!)

SAT Score 1600

 

How to Find Your SAT Goal Score: A Five-Step Guide

In this section, we'll walk you through how to figure out what makes a good SAT score for you based on the schools you're applying to. Our quick five-step process requires only a worksheet (linked below), a writing utensil, and an internet-browsing device!

 

Step 1: Download This Worksheet

First, you'll need to download our worksheet so you can fill it out with information for your schools of interest. Click here to download it, or click the image below.

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Step 2: Fill in the Schools You're Applying To

Next, fill in all the schools you want to apply to in the leftmost column. If you don't know what schools you're aiming for yet, feel free to use ones that have been suggested to you by parents, friends, teachers, or counselors.

Nevertheless, I recommend taking the time to do some research on schools you might want to attend first so that you have a realistic SAT goal score. The more your list reflects the schools you actually end up applying to, the more accurate your target score will be.

 

Step 3: For Each School, Google "[School Name] PrepScholar SAT"

For example, if I'm interested in the University of Alabama, I'd do the following search:

 

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Click on the link to our SAT Scores and GPA page (or our Admission Requirements page—they'll both have the information you need), and scroll down to the 25th- and 75th-percentile composite SAT scores. The 25th–75th percentile range describes the scores of the middle 50% of all students admitted to a particular school.

For the University of Alabama, you'll find that the 25th percentile SAT score is 1060; this means that 25% of admitted students have a score of 1060 on the SAT. That would be a below-average score for admitted students to Alabama.

The 75th percentile SAT score for Alabama is 1280. That means that students with that score did better than 75% of all other admits. In other words, scoring at 1280 or above puts you in the top quarter of admits, giving you a very competitive score for admission!

If you score at or above the 75th percentile for any school, you'll have an excellent chance of getting in (assuming your other credentials are on point for the school). So that's a good SAT score for that school. If you're at the 25th percentile, however, you'll need to have a particularly strong application to boost your odds of getting in.

For each school on your list, Google the PrepScholar SAT score information, and write down the 25th- and 75th-percentile scores in the appropriate row for that school on your goal score sheet.

 

Step 4: Find Your Final SAT Target Score

To determine your target SAT goal score, look at the 75th percentile column. Find the highest SAT score in that column; that'll be your SAT score goal. By scoring at the 75th-percentile level for the most competitive school on your list, you'll be competitive at all the schools you're applying to. So that's a good SAT score for you!

Another advantage of choosing a high goal score is that if you end up falling 10–50 points short, it's not a huge deal because you'll still be competitive for most of your schools.

You might be thinking, "Hey, wait! Why did I fill out that entire sheet if I was just going to pick the highest 75th percentile score?" Well, the advantage of filling out this information is that you now have it handy as a reference. You'll be able to compare your own SAT score with the 25th–75th percentile ranges of all your schools of interest as soon as you get your scores back.

 

Step 5: Make Your Goal Known

As a last step, I suggest that you do two things with your target SAT score:

#1: Share it with your parents. This can turn into a helpful conversation about your personal goals and how you want to achieve your target SAT score. Plus, your parents can help hold you accountable throughout the test-prep process!

#2: Tape it to your wall. This will keep your goal score front and center in your mind, encouraging you to stay motivated to keep up with your SAT study schedule.

 

 

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Here are the scores you need to get five stars on your college applications at some of the top U.S. schools.

 

Good SAT Scores for Popular Schools

To help you determine your goal score, we're giving you an SAT score chart with the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for 2022 for over 50 popular schools. I've also provided the current US News ranking and acceptance rate to give you an idea of how selective each school is. All schools are arranged in order of ranking.

For an even longer list, check out our collection of good SAT scores for 101 popular schools.

 

School
25th-Percentile SAT Score
75th-Percentile SAT Score
US News Ranking
Acceptance Rate
1510
1570
1
6%
1520
1570
2
4%
1490
1580
3
3%
1500
1570
3
4%
1470
1560
5
5%
1500
1570
6
7%
N/A
N/A
7
3%
1490
1560
7
6%
1520
1560
9
7%
1500
1560
9
5%
1500
1560
9
7%
1470
1550
12
7%
1470
1530
12
4%
1510
1560
12
5%
N/A
N/A
15
11%
N/A
N/A
15
9%
1500
1580
18
6%
1480
1570
18
7%
1500
1560
17
9%
1420
1550
20
13%
1360
1530
21
18%
1410
1540
22
12%
1330
1500
22
17%
1480
1560
24
11%
1400
1510
24
19%
1460
1540
28
12%
1320
1470
28
23%
N/A
N/A
28
24%
N/A
N/A
28
37%
1230
1500
32
31%
N/A
N/A
33
21%
1370
1530
33
17%
N/A
N/A
35
26%
1370
1500
35
49%
1370
1510
35
12%
1350
1510
35
45%
1430
1510
39
17%
1450
1530
40
10%
1210
1450
43
53%
1370
1480
43
14%
1260
1420
43
53%
1400
1500
47
21%
1410
1520
47
39%
1220
1400
47
43%
1350
1480
47
37%
1420
1520
53
27%
1450
1535
53
7%
1375
1520
53
33%
1360
1500
60
39%
1380
1500
60
65%
1390
1480
67
23%
1400
1500
73
11%

 

*Test-optional schools through at least 2024. Check out our article to learn more about test-optional policies and schools!
**Test-blind schools. For more information, check out our complete guide!

 

What If My SAT Score Is Too Low? Three Strategies

What if your SAT score ends up being lower than your goal score? What should you do? In this situation, you have a few options to consider. We'll go over them here and help you figure out which one is best for you.

 

Strategy 1: Retake the SAT

If you have the time to do additional preparation for the SAT and retake it, this is probably your most straightforward strategy.

That said, keep in mind that if you really want a better SAT score, you'll need to invest a lot of time into prep and really work on shoring up your weaknesses. These are the estimated time estimates for different total score improvements (not per section) on the SAT:

  • 0- to 30-point improvement: 10 hours
  • 30- to 70-point improvement: 20 hours
  • 70- to 130-point improvement: 40 hours
  • 130- to 200-point improvement: 80 hours
  • 200- to 330-point improvement: 150+ hours

 

Strategy 2: Don't Worry About It

If you were just under your goal score (i.e., within 50 points), you might not actually need to do anything if that slightly lower score is still competitive. For example, if you were aiming for a 1560 for your most selective school but got a 1530, you'd definitely still be in the competitive range for that school.

Depending on how soon you'll be applying to college, it might make more sense to use the time and energy you'd spend preparing for and retaking the test on other parts of your application.

If you were more than 50 points short of your SAT goal score, consider Strategy 1 or 3.

 

Strategy 3: Adjust Your List of Schools

If you're 50+ points short of your goal score and don't have time to retake the test, you might need to make some adjustments to your list of schools. Although you definitely should still apply to your dream schools as reach schools, it's wise to pad out your list of match and safety schools to align with the lower scores.

For instance, maybe you were going for 1510 but got 1410 instead. With your goal score, you had NYU (middle 50%: 1370–1510) as one of your match schools. But with an actual score of 1410, this school is now more of a reach (its 75th percentile is more than 50 points higher than your score).

You also had Lehigh University (middle 50%: 1300–1430) as a safety school, but with your current score, it's better as a match school.

Finally, you might consider adding some additional safety schools that align better with your 1410 score, such as American University (middle 50%: 1220–1380) and Penn State (middle 50%: 1160–1370).

Read our guide to learn more about choosing appropriate safety, match, and reach schools.

 

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Review: What Is a Good SAT Score for You?

So what are good SAT scores? Your total SAT score out of 1600 corresponds to a percentile ranking that compares you to everyone else who took the test. The current mean, or average, SAT score is 1050.

What is a good SAT score for you, though? The answer to this question depends on what schools you want to attend. In this article, we described a five-step process to figure out good SAT scores for you based on the middle 50% of scores for the colleges you're applying to. We also listed SAT score ranges for 50 popular schools.

Finally, we provided some advice on what to do if you don't hit your goal score. You can retake the test, do nothing (if you were pretty close to your goal score), or adjust your list of schools based on what kinds of SAT scores they're looking for.

All in all, what is a good SAT score? The most important thing to remember is that good SAT scores are specific to you. You won't necessarily need the same scores as your friends or peers, so don't feel the need to compare your goals with those of other people. What ultimately matters is that your SAT score is high enough to get you into the college of your dreams!

 

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What's Next?

 

If you received a low SAT score, we have a low score guide! We can also help you figure out whether or not you should retake the SAT.

Aiming for a high SAT score? Then check out our expert guide to getting a perfect 1600, written by an actual full scorer.

 

Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Get eBook: 5 Tips for 160+ Points

 

Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!


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Dr. Fred Zhang
About the Author

Fred is co-founder of PrepScholar. He scored a perfect score on the SAT and is passionate about sharing information with aspiring students. Fred graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor's in Mathematics and a PhD in Economics.



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