SAT Score Range: What’s a High Result for the National Colleges?

SAT Score Range: What’s a High Result for the National Colleges?

The College Board changes SAT score range almost every year. Thus, the percentile students may earn per each of three sections also varies. According to the last news, SAT is scored on a range from 400 to 1600. You can’t get less than 400, but less than 90% is still not enough for further admissions process!

All three sections provide you with an opportunity to earn from 200 to 400 points. Those are:

  1. Math
  2. Reading
  3. Writing

The language of SAT is English. If you wonder which SAT score range is relevant for your target college or national university, you can find this information on the official site of Forbes magazine.

On the whole, SAT scoring system is rather confusing. Hopefully, you’ll find the answers in this article.

The General Facts about SAT

To begin with, let’s discuss the basic facts about SAT.

  • There are three sections (sometimes, Reading and Writing are combined)
  • The final score is combined with a range of 200 to 800 per each section, including Math
  • 1600 is the maximum on the scale
  • 400 is the worst result
  • An average percentile is still not enough for your admissions

Overall average SAT score is 1000. As we can see, the College Board expects to see the results higher than 50% correct. Thus, students who feel okay with receiving D on every subject may experience certain difficulties. Three different types of scores make the SAT range even more complex to understand.

However, as SAT is your only chance to improve your school grades in the face of national college admissions board, you should try really hard to achieve the highest percentile on each section. Right, college is different from school, so it has much more requirements to your past records and current performance.

Now, it is time to briefly discuss three different types of new SAT scores.

Test Scores



The College Board decided to add such category to show how many questions each candidate missed on every section. So, there are test scores for Math, Reading, and Writing respectively. The scale varies from 10 to 40 points. The percentile you obtain on a math test is converted to a score from the range 200-800.

It is a comfortable system used to compare the performance of different students. Leave this technical issue to the statistics experts from the College Board. Your main purpose is to answer as many questions correctly as possible.

The final decision regarding your admissions is then made based on your writing and reading sections’ performance.

Cross-test Scores

If you wish to take an exam which checks your knowledge of science, you’d better switch to ACT. SAT excluded this section from its list and grading scale. You may take both tests. This step will increase your chances to pass admissions process successfully in case you have a stunning admissions essay. You can find a lot of free essay examples online based on the application packages of applicants who passed. Some of these essays may help to get ready for the SAT Writing section.

Even though you are free of science questions, be prepared that your percentile will still include some of them. Science questions may pop up in SAT Math section. To earn the highest score on a range, a student has to know some other school subjects as well.

What The College Board means under the cross-test scores are:

  1. Analysis in History/Social Studies
  2. Analysis in Science

Sub-scores



You have to make an attempt to memorize all of this information to know what is waiting for you. The final set of SAT scores makes it possible to understand student’s academic performance based on his or her reading comprehension and writing skills. The last blog is based on the math questions.

Each section has different questions based on the two subsections. Reading involves:

  1. Command of Evidence.
  2. Words in Context. Analyze the usage of certain words. 

National curriculum surveys conducted by the College Board proved that admissions boards appreciate the ability of candidates to summarize a text, highlight the main argument, define rhetorical strategies, and recognize logical flaws as well as analyze and evaluate the essay. The whole Command of Evidence part is dedicated to this mission.

The highest percentile for writing is given to those who manage to score high at: 

  1. Expressing Ideas. Practice your knowledge of English language, especially if you’re an international student.
  2. Standard English Conventions. The questions from this part make students edit passages for sentence structure, usage, and punctuation. So, you will have to look carefully for any mistakes in the English language.

Finally, students who take math part must be experienced at:

  1. Heart of Algebra. You need to know only the basics like what an equation means and how to solve it.
  2. Problem Solving and Data Analysis. Here students face a lot of problems and cases instead of theoretical questions.
  3. Passport to Advanced Math. It is better to look for some advanced material to prepare. 

Best SAT Essay Results

After three hours of hard work, the last section comes. The admissions officers are looking forward to obtaining your SAT essay scores to check your English proficiency. It’s a challenging part for international students, but it is the best way to improve your school grading report. Take this 55 minutes to make up the most informative and accurate answer to the essay question. Read it at least twice.

To score high on the scale, it is important to score high in each category:

  1. Reading
  2. Analysis
  3. Writing

This gives you a total of 24.

  • the two-eight range for reading part
  • the two-eight range for analysis part
  • the two-eight range for writing itself

We have covered the entire SAT range based on the official materials from the College Board. An average score won’t help if you plan to apply for one of the best national colleges in the US or UK. Thus, you should try to achieve the highest percentiles on each section. Also, you will need a stunning personal statement. We recommend ordering an admission essay from the online academic writers with the well-known name and trustworthy reputation!