How To Calculate an Overall SAT Score
How to Calculate SAT Score
It's important to understand how your overall SAT score is calculated. Why? Who cares? You should! The colleges that you apply to cares too!
By knowing how your SAT test is scored and what the scores mean, you can identify your areas of improvement. If you want to retake the test, you can study and focus mainly on the sections that you want to improve on. Most colleges will accept your best score from different tests.
In this article, you will learn how the SAT Administration calculates the overall score of the SAT Test and SAT Subject Test.
The old SAT that I took in the 90's used to range from 400 to 1600. The most updated SAT for this year also has an essay writing section. So the total score for all three sections of the SAT Exam is 2400. Read further to understand the break down of the scores.
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The Math and Critical Reading Sub Score
Each subject receives a score (multiple of 10) on the scale of 200-800. So the lowest score that you can get on each section is 200 and the highest is 800. Total scores are calculated by adding up the scores of the three individual subject areas, Critical Reading, Math, and Writing.
You can earn 1 point for each correct answer. However you lose 1/4 point for each incorrect answer. The only exception is the grid-in math section, where you will nether lose or earn points if you don't answer the question correctly. If a question is left unanswered, you will get 0 points.
The Essay Sub Score
The writing section is scored differently. You will get a score on a scale of 1 to 6. Your essay is scored by two readers, so that means you will get two separate scores, with a total possible score from 2 to 12. If the score is different by 1 point, a 3rd reader will also score the essay.
Note that the essay counts for 30 percent of your overall raw score.
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SAT Test Format and Scores
Subject
| Sections
| Content
| Maximum Score
|
|---|---|---|---|
Math
| 20 Questions 18 Questions 16 Questions
| Numbers, operations, geometry, statistics, and algebra
| 800
|
Writing
| Essay Section 35 Questions 14 Questions
| Grammar, usage, diction, vocabulary, and paragraph-level reading
| 800
|
Critical Reading
| 24 Questions 24 Questions 19 Questions
| Critical reading, sentence-level reading, and vocabulary
| 800
|
Perfect SAT Score?
By the way, I knew somebody from high school that had a perfect SAT score. They named a day after him, the Ern Loh Day. Statistics also say that 20 students receive a perfect score every year, out of millions of students. So don't fret about having the perfect score. Just do your best and aim for the highest score possible. And if you do score perfectly, maybe the principal will name a day after you too!
SAT Raw Scores are "Equated"
The first step in calculating your SAT score is to determine the raw score for EACH section. Your raw score is converted to a scaled score by a "statistical" process called equating. Remember, the maximum scaled score for each section is 800, which is the score that you report to the colleges!
The conversion of raw scores to scaled score is to correct for minor variations in the test administrations. They want to make sure that the same ability level of each test taker is the same scaled score on every single test. This process makes it possible to compare students who take different editions of the test and account the different test administers who proctor the test.
In other words, they want to make sure that the 500 that you scored on your edition of the test reflects the same ability of your friend's same score of 450 on a different edition of the test.
The scaled score is based on a bell curve that you may be familiar with. The majority of scores fall in the 400-600 range of the bell curve.
For a more detailed explanation of what the scores mean, visit the CollegeBoard.
The SAT Subject Test Scoring System
The SAT Subjects (History, Spanish, etc) are scored slightly different. The sub scores are reported on a scale of 20-80.
- You get 1 point for each question that you answer correctly.
- 1/4 point penalty for each 5-choice question answered wrong.
- 1/3 point penalty for each 4-choice question answered wrong.
- 1/2 point penalty for each 4-choice question answered wrong.
- 0 point subtracted for each question that is left blank.
Understanding SAT Percentiles
When you look at the percentile score, think of it as a comparison of your score to other student's scores across the states. Let me give you an example.
- Your math score is 550. If the state percentile for a score of 550 is 62, you did better than 62% of the state's test takers.
You can check the percentile score for SAT and Subject Test.
I hope that I've cleared up some questions regarding how the overall SAT score is calculated. Good luck!
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