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.
Also written as: score percentile, percentile rank
Why it matters
The percentile, not the score, is what tells you whether a number is competitive. It is also how a score gets compared against a college's admitted middle 50%, which is the figure that actually drives a submit-or-withhold decision.
What people get wrong
Quoting the higher of the two without saying which one it is. The Nationally Representative percentile is modelled on all US students of that grade, including those who never take the SAT, and it runs meaningfully higher than the User percentile for the same score. The User percentile is the more honest comparison for admissions.
Practise this on real adaptive questions
PrepGenix runs the same module-adaptive format as Bluebook, with scoring handled server-side. Free to start.