The digital SAT, term by term
Every one of these words turns up in score reports, College Board pages and prep advice as though everybody already knows it. Here is what each one actually means, why it matters, and the specific thing people get wrong about it.
One page per term, each linking to the full guide it came from. Free, no form.
Bluebook
Bluebook is the application every digital SAT is taken in — College Board's own software, installed on the student's or school's device, used for both the real test and the official full-length practice tests.
Adaptive routing
Adaptive routing is the digital SAT's rule that your performance on the first module of a section decides whether the second module you receive is the harder or the easier form.
Superscore
A superscore is the combination of a student's highest Reading and Writing section score and highest Math section score across different SAT sittings, rather than the best single-day total.
Selection Index
The Selection Index is the PSAT/NMSQT figure National Merit uses instead of the total score: the Reading and Writing section score counted twice plus the Math section score, expressed on a 48–228 scale.
Question-and-Answer Service
The Question-and-Answer Service was the paper-era College Board product that returned a copy of the test booklet, the student's answers and the correct answers after a sitting. It was discontinued with the move to the digital SAT.
Grid-in
A grid-in is a digital SAT Math question with no answer choices: the student types the answer into a box. College Board calls them student-produced response questions.
SAT School Day
SAT School Day is a weekday administration of the same digital SAT, given at a student's own school and paid for by the school, district or state rather than by the family.
Raw score vs scaled score
A raw score is simply the number of questions answered correctly, with no penalty for wrong answers. A scaled score is that raw score converted onto the 200–800 section scale through equating, so the same scaled score means the same thing across different test forms.
Percentile
An SAT percentile is the share of a comparison group scoring at or below a given score. College Board reports two of them: the Nationally Representative percentile, and the SAT User percentile based on students who actually sat the test.
Or start with a question instead of a word
The answers library takes the specific questions students arrive with and answers each one on its own page.