SAT Scores & Score Targets

Percentiles compress fast at the top. Going 1400 → 1500 moves you ten percentile points; 1500 → 1550 moves you three, for a similar amount of work.

Every guide in SAT Scores & Score Targets

• What's a Good SAT Score for Top Colleges?

  The hub post for this cluster. What counts as good, great and elite — and how to pick the target that fits the schools you are actually applying to.

• How the Digital SAT Is Scored

  How raw answers become a 400–1600 score, why the conversion moves between forms, and what equating does and does not smooth out.

• How Many Questions Can You Miss for a 1500?

  A miss budget by score band, split by whether you got the easy or the hard second module. The number is smaller than most students assume on an easy Module 2.

• Your Module 2 Felt Easy. Here's What That Actually Means.

  If your second module felt easy, it probably was — and that pathway carries a hard score ceiling. The most-asked question in the 48 hours after every administration.

• Is 1200 a Good SAT Score?

  58th percentile. Where it is competitive, and the realistic next target.

• Is 1300 a Good SAT Score?

  73rd percentile. The band where score-optional decisions start to get genuinely close.

• Is 1400 a Good SAT Score?

  85th percentile. Competitive at selective privates, and the most common starting point for students who want 1500.

• Is 1450 a Good SAT Score?

  91st percentile. Strong nearly everywhere, and often enough to stop testing.

• Is 1500 a Good SAT Score?

  95th percentile. What it opens, and whether the next fifty points are worth the months they cost.

• Is 1550 a Good SAT Score?

  98th percentile. At this point the score is rarely what is holding an application back.

• 1100 to 1300 and 1200 to 1400: Two Jumps, Opposite Plans

  Two 200-point jumps that need opposite plans: one is a content problem, the other is an accuracy problem.

• SAT Superscoring: How to Plan Around It

  Which colleges superscore, how to plan test dates around it, and why superscoring changes the calculus on taking the test more than once.

• What an SAT Score Is Worth in Scholarship Dollars

  What each score band is worth in actual award dollars at schools with published automatic merit grids — and the honest disclaimer about where no such grid exists.

• PSAT, National Merit & What Your Score Predicts

  Selection Index cutoffs by state and what a PSAT score predicts about your SAT. Note that R&W counts double in the Selection Index.

Common questions

What is a good SAT score?

Relative to your college list, not in the abstract. Nationally, 1200 is around the 58th percentile, 1400 the 85th and 1500 the 95th. But the only number that matters is how yours compares to the admitted middle 50% at the schools you are actually applying to.

How many questions can I miss and still get a 1500?

Fewer than most students expect, and it depends on which second module you were routed into. On a hard Module 2 you can miss several and still land at 1500; on the easy pathway the attainable range is compressed, so each remaining question carries more weight.

What is the highest possible SAT score?

1600 — an 800 on Reading & Writing plus an 800 on Math. Roughly the 99th percentile and above; at that level a higher score is almost never what is holding an application back.

Do colleges see every SAT score I have taken?

Not automatically. Score Choice lets you decide which sittings to send, and many colleges superscore by combining your best section scores across dates. Which policy applies is set by each college, so it has to be checked school by school.

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