SAT Score Converter

The SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) is a standardized college admissions exam administered by the College Board. Understanding how raw scores are converted to scaled scores — and what percentile that places you in — is essential for setting realistic college goals.

Score structure (current SAT format, post-2024 digital SAT):

• Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) — 200–800 points
• Math — 200–800 points
• Total Score — 400–1600 points (sum of ERW + Math)

Raw score to scaled score conversion: Raw scores (number of correct answers) are converted via an equating process that adjusts for test difficulty. The exact conversion table varies by test date. General approximation:

Approximate Raw Score → Scaled Score for Math:

• 44/44 correct → 800 (perfect)
• 40/44 → ~750
• 35/44 → ~690
• 28/44 → ~610
• 20/44 → ~510
• 10/44 → ~380

Percentile benchmarks (2024 SAT data):

• 1600 — 99th+ percentile (top ~0.2% of test takers)
• 1500 — ~98th percentile
• 1400 — ~95th percentile
• 1300 — ~88th percentile
• 1200 — ~74th percentile
• 1100 — ~58th percentile
• 1000 — ~40th percentile
• Average score — approximately 1010–1020 total

Worked example: Student scores 38/44 correct on Math (scaled ≈ 730) and 48/54 correct on Reading/Writing (scaled ≈ 720). Total SAT score = 730 + 720 = 1450. This places the student at approximately the 96th percentile — competitive for most selective universities.

College-specific SAT targets (middle 50% ranges):

• MIT — 1510–1580
• UC Berkeley — 1310–1530
• State flagships — typically 1100–1350
• Community colleges — open admission (no SAT required)

Superscoring: Many colleges take the highest section scores across multiple test dates. A student who scores 700 Math / 650 ERW on one date, and 670 Math / 710 ERW on another, would have a superscore of 700 + 710 = 1410.