SAT score calculator: your total, the benchmarks and the ACT equivalent

The paper SAT had a fixed conversion table for each test form, so counting right answers gave you a score. The digital SAT uses item response theory: each question has its own difficulty and weight, and the second module you get depends on the first. Two students with the same number right can get different scores. That is why this calculator starts from section scores you already have, from an official practice test in Bluebook or from a real score report.

For practice between official tests, our SAT practice test gives you percent right and a score for each domain, which tells you where to work even though it is not a scaled score.

The benchmarks are a readiness line, not an admissions target. Selective colleges usually look for scores well above them; open-admission colleges may use them for course placement instead.

College Board reports digital SAT scores on the same scale as the paper SAT, which is why the 2018 tables are still the ones colleges use. The full table, both ways, is on SAT vs ACT.

Your own score report shows your percentiles, and they are the ones to trust. As a rough guide from figures we could source, the class of 2025 mean was 1029, so a total near that is close to the middle of test takers, and a total in the 1400s puts you well into the top tenth.

Percentiles also shift from year to year as the group of test takers changes, which is another reason to read yours from your own report rather than from a chart online. A percentile tells you where you stand among test takers; it does not tell you whether a college will consider your score strong.

For what counts as a good score at the colleges you are applying to, which is the question that matters, see what is a good SAT score.

Say you score 610 in Reading and Writing and 580 in Math in March, then 590 and 640 in June. Your single-sitting best is 1230, but your superscore is 610 plus 640, or 1250. Enter the best section score from each sitting in the calculator above to see your superscore against the benchmarks.

Superscoring changes strategy. If a college superscores, you can focus a later sitting on the section you most need to raise, as long as the other section does not collapse. Check each college's testing policy on its admissions page before you plan around it.

Section scores also matter on their own. Engineering and math-heavy programs look closely at Math, and some scholarships or placement rules use a single section. The calculator shows each section against its benchmark for that reason, not just the total.