Average SAT Scores – Is Your SAT Score Good Enough?
By Scholarship for USA on Apr 16, 2009 with Comments 13
Students often wonder what should be considered a good SAT score. They are sometimes worried that their SAT score is not good enough to get into the college of their choice. Students will often take the SAT multiple times to better their score. Although a perfect SAT score is as good as it gets, only a minuscule percentage of all students that take the SAT get a perfect score on the test. Therefore it is often a good idea to know the average SAT scores of test takers and then set a goal for oneself. My opinion is that students should always aim to achieve a better score than the average SAT scores.
Also read: 21 Colleges that do not Require the SAT for Admission
So what is the average SAT score, you might ask. CollegeBoard, the official governing body for the SAT, has released the average SAT scores for test takers in 2008. There are three sections to the SAT: Critical reading, Mathematics and Writing. Each section is scored on a scale of 200 to 800. The following are the average SAT scores for 2008:
- Critical reading: 502
- Mathematics: 515
- Writing: 494
Picture By: by the mad LOLscientist
So we see that the combined average SAT scores is 1511 on a scale of 2400. Students should definitely aim for a score that is much higher than this number. An average SAT scores of 2100 is a respectable number which puts the test taker in the 90th percentile, which means that the test taker did better than 90% of the people that took the test. I think students that have an average SAT scores below 1500 should retake the test because this is a below average SAT scores which would put you in a competitive disadvantage during the admission process. However, it is important that students do not get too caught up in achieving a high SAT scores because SAT scores are not the only thing that admission officials look at. In fact, more and more colleges are claiming that standardized tests play very little role in their admission decision. Whatever the case maybe, it cannot hurt to have a good SAT score.
Did you take the SAT? Did you score higher than the average SAT scores reported here? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Filed Under: SAT
The average scores reported are a bit lower than what I had expected.
I scored 2200 on the SAT.
I got a 2090, I’m retaking it at the beginning of my senior year, aiming for 2200.
I scored higher on all of the sections than the average. Retaking it in December!
1400 to a 2100. Ha.
I got an 1820 the first time and, taken December 5th, got an 1890. I can probably get above 2000… but it’s a little too late now.
I think I still did okay. I was tired and hungry BOTH times and not well-prepared.
I’m only a Sophomore, but I got 1920 on the PSAT (69, 63, 60 respectively, I believe). I feel like I’m gonna be jinxed once I take the real thing now…
I must be stupid, I took it once and got a 1570.
I’m very surprised by this-
My SAT score was 2050 first time and 2270 second
I qualified for National Merit PSAT
Can I have some advice please?
hey guyz I need some info.I’m from South Asia.I’m a US citizen by birth.now I’m in Bangladesh for ’bout 10 years.
I’m planning to go to USA for my higher education.I wanna get an BBA n MBA degree from Barucg or CUNY or maybe something even better.Can ya guyz tell me what score I need to get in SAT for 100% scholarship?
Please give me all the good info ya got.Thank y
Really the best tip that I, as a 2280 scorer, can offer you is quite simple: spell correctly and speak like an educated individual.
I didn’t take the PSAT, simply because I didn’t know about it in time… (I’m homeschooled.) I really regret that! I took the SAT twice, and got a 2280 the second time – a 760 on each section. I would almost say that the PSAT is more important, as far as scholarships go, although I did get a $14,000 a year scholarship from the college I am hoping to attend, based just on my SAT scores!