Agree Mo.
Especially since the SAT score is only good, not spectacular (below 75%)...
In 2016, the perfect score reverts to 1,600 like in our time. It was 2,400 in more recent days.
SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips
What Is a Good SAT Score? A Bad SAT Score? An Excellent SAT Score?
Posted by Dr. Fred Zhang | Jan 30, 2016 11:00:00 AM
SAT/ACT Score Target
Excellent-Good-Bad-SAT-score-range
What is a good SAT score? You took the SAT, got your scores back, and now you want to know how you did. Or maybe you just want to know what score to aim for next time. Here we answer that question for you quickly, and then dive in carefully to explain the answer.Importantly, we also give you a step-by-step guide to figuring out what SAT score YOU need, depending on the colleges you want to apply to.
Note: the Old SAT was scored on the 2400 scale, but the New SAT is scored on the 1600 scale. Because most colleges will accept scores from both SATs for the Class of 2017, we'll cover both tests here.
What's a Good SAT Score, Compared to the Entire Country?
The short answer: for the New SAT (out of 1600), 1000 is considered an average score. Roughly half the students score higher than this threshold and the other half score below it.
For the Old SAT (out of 2400), 1500 is the national average score.
The top 25% of SAT takers score about 1200 or more (or 1800 on the Old SAT); if your New SAT score is above 1200, then that's quite good. Whether this is good enough to get into the colleges you care about is what we'll cover next.
The bottom 25% of SAT takers score 840 (or 1260 on the Old SAT); if you're scoring in that range, be careful! It may be hard for you to get into the college you want to attend.
Again, to reiterate:
New SAT (of 1600) Old SAT (of 2400)
Excellent (top 25%) 1200 1800
Good (Average) 1000 1500
Poor (lowest 25%) 840 1260
Here is the precise chart of percentiles, provided by the College Board.
The round number 1000 is not a coincidence. The SAT makers actually design the test so the overall average score is 1000, and the average score per section is 500.
Remember, the lowest you can score on the SAT is 400, and the highest you can score is 1600.
But wait - this is just the national average. Is the entire US population the exact right basis for finding what a good SAT score is? What if you're not an average American, but a football star, or an international student? Don't you want to define what a good SAT score is based on your personal potential?
If you agree, then you should read our guide to Defining what a Good SAT Score. We cover four different ways of defining what a good SAT score is.
One popular defintiion of a good SAT score must depend on what college you're aiming for. What you really care about is how good your SAT score is compared to the average score of students at schools that you're planning to apply to. If you don't get a score above your target score, you may find it hard to get into the colleges you're looking for.
Keep reading for our step-by-step guide to figuring out what a good SAT score for YOU is, in just 10 minutes.
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