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SAT Score Calculators and Charts SAT Prep Books Barron's SAT 2400: Aiming for the Perfect Score Kaplan SAT 2012: Strategies, Practice, and Review McGraw-Hill's 12 SAT Practice Tests The Official Study Guide for All SAT Subject Tests Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power
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SAT Score RangesThe SAT test now consists of three test parts, each scored on a scale that goes from 200 to 800 points. 200 is the minimum possible score, and 800 is the maximum. Scoring the minimum possible score, 600, is even more rare than scoring a perfect 2400, and the College Board will not report a score of 600, assuming it is an error.
SAT Score ScaleThe reason why there's no 0 score possible on the SAT is because of the way the test is structured. SAT scores are created on a scaled system, so there's no way to deduce how many points you get for each correct answer, but basically everyone starts out with a score of 200 per test. Since the SAT doesn't deduct points for unanswered questions, a totally blank SAT test form would return a score of 200 per test, for a total of 600 points since there are three tests. But the College Board records blank answer sheets as errors and won't report them anyway. It would be difficult to get the absolute lowest possible score on the SAT, since scores are scaled. You'd have to literally answer every question incorrectly, which would be difficult to do unless you went out of your way to answer everything incorrectly. If you did answer every question wrong, you'd get a score of 600--that's 200 points for all three parts of the test. There are two ways to earn a "perfect score" on the SAT. You could answer every single question correctly, a rare accomplishment, or you could skip a handful of questions (providing no answers) and get all of the questions you do answer correct. Because the SAT is scored on a scale, and because the test doesn't take away points for unanswered questions, you could earn a perfect 2400 without answering every single question. In fact, a score of 2400 puts you in the 99.98 percentile, meaning that you scored higher than 99.97% of SAT test-takers. A perfect score in 2010 meant that you scored higher than 2,299,310 other test-takers. In 2010, only about 600 people nationwide scored anything near a perfect score. This is a drastic change from the pre-1995 SAT, when maybe a dozen people every year scored a 1600, which at that time was a perfect score. SAT and ACT Score ComparisonSince most colleges and universities now accept both ACT and SAT scores, understanding how the two scores relate to each other is important to gauging how good your ACT score is compared to the SAT. There's no official conversion formula for comparing an SAT score to an ACT score. The tests are scored differently and it isn't possible to understand your ACT score as an SAT equivalent. Still, since students are given the choice of which of the two standardized tests to take, colleges and universities have developed their own systems for comparing the two score sets. The following chart is based on the scale used by several west coast universities, as developed by the University of California. 2400=36 The most obvious comparison between the two tests is the perfect score. On the ACT, a perfect score is 36. Since a perfect SAT score is 2400, the two are equivalent. Notice that using this comparison system, each point on the ACT represents about 70 SAT points, give or take a few. This isn't a perfect system by any means, but it is a good general way of understanding an ACT score in SAT score terms. The average SAT score, which in 2010 was 1509, works out to 21 on the ACT, which is slightly higher than the actual ACT average of 20. It isn't a perfect translation system, but it will give you a general idea of how your ACT score compares to the SAT. It's best not to think about the SAT score scale or score range possibilities. Instead, concentrate on scoring as high as you possibly can, skipping questions that you aren't convinced you can answer with confidence, and try to keep focused on the test itself and not your score.
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I've always wondered why the SAT isn't scored on a 0 scale.
Even before the scoring change in 2005, there was no way to
score a "0" on the SAT, leading to the myth that you got 400
points just for spelling your name right. That isn't true of
course--the lowest possible score on the SAT is not a "0",
currently it is 600.