What You Need To Know About New SAT Scores

The first scores for the new SAT are now available online. The SAT reports are in a new format, designed to help students understand the areas where they need to improve if they are to be ready for college.

The new scores can be accessed by logging into a student account on the College Board website.

Understanding The New SAT Scores

The multiple-choice parts of the SAT are now divided into two sections: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and Math. Both sections have scores ranging from 200 to 800. Added together, they make the SAT Total Score - so the highest mark possible is 1600.

The essay is now an optional part of the SAT and is scored separately, on a scale of 2 to 8.

A selection of Subscores and Cross-Test Scores give more details on how students performed on specific skills.

College and Career Readiness

The new report provides benchmarks showing whether a student is on the path to college and career readiness.

Percentiles

Students can see their percentile score, telling them how their performance compares to the scores of all the other students taking the SAT.

Comparing Old And New SAT Scores

Online tools provided by the College Board enable students to compare their new SAT scores to their old SAT scores (if they took both tests), and also to compare their new SAT scores to their ACT scores.

Using The New SAT Scores

Most colleges and universities will accept both old and new SAT scores for the next few years.