When you get your SAT score back, it can be hard to tell whether you've earned a good SAT score. Whether or not your SAT score is considered good is going to vary depending on your academic strengths and weaknesses as well as the admission and scholarship score requirements at the colleges you're interested in attending.
Our philosophy on testing and SAT prep is never one-size-fits all. We have to take each student's unique situation into account.
Here are 3 simple questions you can answer to determine whether your SAT score is strong enough to accomplish your goals:
1. Based on your academic performance, what SAT score can you reasonably expect to achieve?
SAT scores are still an important piece of a student's college application. While they aren’t the sole determinant of admission, one of their important functions is to verify that a student has actually acquired the knowledge that has helped them earn their grades in school.
The SAT is by no means a perfect measure of a student's abilities, but there are certain rough expectations that admissions officers have for your SAT scores based on your GPA.
How the SAT Is Scored
The SAT has 2 main sections, Evidence-Based Reading & Writing and Math, that are each scored on a scale of 200-800.
Those 2 scores are then added to create a total score falling between 400 and 1600.
Using the percentiles from a College Board publication, we can see that the average section score based on SAT users is roughly 530 points in Reading & Writing and 520 points in Math for an average total score of 1050.
Here are 2 ways to determine if your SAT scores are in the ballpark of a reasonably expected score…
Anticipated SAT Score Using GPA
Based on a student’s GPA, I would expect the following total scores after SAT prep...
GPA | Total SAT Score
Over 4.0 | 1450 - 1600
3.5 - 4.0 | 1300 - 1450
3.0 - 3.5 | 1200 - 1300
2.5 - 3.0 | 1000 - 1200
Anticipated SAT Score Using Grades
Using a student’s English class performance as a guide, here’s what we would expect from the verbal section scores...
Strong (A’s and high B’s) Honors/AP Students + Strong Readers | 650-800
Strong (A’s and high B’s) Students in Regular English/B-Level Honors/AP Students | 600-650
B Students in Regular English/C-Level Honors/AP Students | 550-600
All Others | 450-550
On the math side, once a student has taken Algebra 2, I would expect the scores to come out as follows…
Strong (A’s and high B’s) Honors/AP Students | 650-800
Strong (A’s and high B’s) Students in Regular Level Math/B-Level Honors/AP Students | 600-650
B Students in Regular Level Math/C-Level Honors/AP Students | 550-600
All Others | 450-550
These are, of course, loose guidelines.
If you feel your score does not reflect your academic performance based on your GPA, try 4 hours of our SAT Quick Prep or a few weeks of lessons with our full SAT prep.
2. What are the average SAT scores for accepted students at 3-6 of your favorite prospective colleges?
Once you’ve considered the scores listed above, you should check in with prospective colleges regarding their average SAT scores for admission.
Most colleges list the middle 50% of the range of accepted scores, eliminating the very high and very low score outliers from the accepted applicants the previous year. In order to be considered a strong applicant in the following year, you'll want to target the upper half of this range.
If your scores fall in this upper half or above, you can breathe easy and continue to hone the other aspects of your application to make yourself an even more competitive applicant.
However, even if you are at or slightly above the average score, it is in your best interest to submit your scores, even at test optional schools. Your test scores help confirm or improve your academic level and give admissions officers confidence in their decision.
3. What are the score requirements for merit aid at your favorite colleges?
You may be tempted to skip this question if you feel you aren't the kind of student who will qualify for scholarships.
That would be a serious mistake - one that can cost you thousands of dollars in free tuition dollars down the line.
The time to research paying for college is at the same time that you are selecting the colleges you're going to apply to because, if you know where to look, you can find colleges that will pay you to attend, even with 50th or 60th percentile SAT scores.
You don't have to be a 99th percentile scoring, 4.7 GPA earning student to earn 4- and 5-figure scholarships to a great college. You just have to know where to look to find the money.
So, at the same time that you are researching admissions averages, you should also look into the score requirements for merit aid which is sometimes referred to as academic scholarships on college websites.
While getting in to a college is important, many families overlook the financial aid impact of their SAT scores.
Just a few SAT points can make the difference between earning nothing and having thousands of dollars in free tuition money in your pocket. Without doing scholarship research early, you run the risk of walking away from testing when you are incredibly close to earning seriously impactful tuition awards.
Here’s what one of our online SAT prep clients had to say…
Our son David began his SAT prep just weeks before his final attempt to raise his score. He raised his score by 60 points! Those 60 points landed him an additional scholarship for $4,000! 5-star service! I'm a believer.
Tracey W.
Thrilled Mom
An additional 60 points led to an additional $16,000 in scholarships over 4 years.
The link between higher scores and tuition dollars is the reason that all of our online SAT prep courses include our Cash for College workshop as a free bonus.
Your Next Steps...
So - what is a good SAT score? It's simply the score that helps you achieve your college admissions and scholarship goals.
The answer will be different for every student.
If you still have questions about testing, check out this list of SAT prep resources here or download our free eBook, The Insider's Guide to the ACT & SAT, in which we share 35 of my top strategies for success on the college admissions exams.