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? Above Average, and List-Dependent

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

• Is 1300 a Good SAT Score? Strong, and Right on the Submit Boundary

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

• Is 1400 a Good SAT Score? Yes — Except at Your Reach Schools

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

• Is 1450 a Good SAT Score? Yes, and Above the Median Almost Everywhere

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

• Is 1500 a Good SAT Score? Yes, at Every College in the Country

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

• Is 1550 a Good SAT Score? Yes, and Retaking It Is a Mistake

  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.

• When Do SAT Scores Come Out? Every 2026–27 Release Date

  Every published release date for 2026–27, why the gap is 13 days, and why scores appear in waves through the day rather than at a fixed hour.

• How Many Times Should You Take the SAT?

  There is no limit, but the published research is blunt: the first retake raises a superscore roughly twice as much as any retake after it.

• What It Actually Takes to Score 1600 on the SAT

  A perfect score is two stages. You have to clear the Module 1 routing bar in both sections before 800 is even reachable, and then miss essentially nothing.

• How to Send SAT Scores (and Why the Free Window Closes First)

  Four free reports, nine days to use them, and a score released four days later. The full fee ladder and the honest answer on whether to send blind.

• Can You Cancel, Withhold, or Re-Score an SAT?

  Cancelling a score, withholding it and paying to have it re-checked are three different actions with three deadlines. Why the first is almost always wrong.

• What Colleges Actually See When You Send an SAT Score

  Colleges see the sittings you sent and nothing else. What is verifiable about the institutional report, and what College Board does not publish.

• Your August SAT Score Lands Friday. September Already Closed.

  The August score lands after the September deadline closes. The four-day gap that repeats on every administration this autumn.

• The two weeks after the SAT

  The stretch between sitting the test and seeing the number, and what is worth doing in it.

• What Is the SAT Score Range?

  What the 400 to 1600 scale actually represents, section by section, and where the meaningful thresholds sit.

• How Your SAT Raw Score Becomes a Scaled Score

  How a raw count of correct answers becomes a scaled score, and why the same raw score is worth different totals on different forms.

• Is the SAT Curved? No — But Two Other Things Are

  No. The two things people mistake for a curve are equating and the adaptive ceiling, and they work quite differently.

• What Does SAT Stand For?

  It stands for nothing now, officially. The history is short and the answer to the question behind it is more useful.

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.

Browse all SAT guides, or read about who writes them.