
But if you haven’t taken the SAT yet or have taken it and plan to retake it, what composite SAT score should you shoot for in order to get a certain percentile ranking? OK, so you get that percentile rankings are important. What Are the Percentile Ranges for the SAT? Paying attention to your percentile ranking, as well as your composite score, can give you the best idea of your performance and help you make strategic choices about which colleges to apply to. If you got, say, an SAT score in the 90th percentile, this would make you competitive for many schools since you scored better than 90% of students nationwide. So, why do percentiles matter? Colleges use percentiles to compare you with other students. (For more info on how the SAT is scored, see our scoring guide.) It just means that compared with everyone who took the SAT, you scored higher than 90% of them. For instance, if you get a percentile of 90, this doesn't mean you got exactly 90% of the questions right.

Your percentile score is not like a grade out of 100. If you got a percentile of 47 on the Math section, you did better than 47% of students on SAT Math.Īn example of an SAT score report with percentiles. For example, if you got a composite percentile of 76, this means you scored higher than 76% of students on the whole test.

Your percentile tells you how you did on the SAT compared with everyone else who took the test. The SAT gives you a percentile ranking for your overall composite score as well as for each of the two section scores: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and Math.

In addition to the composite score you get on the SAT (i.e., that number between 4), you'll get a percentile ranking, ranging from 1 to 99.

Read the 1600 SAT guide today and start improving your score. No matter your level, you'll find useful advice here - this strategy guide has been read by over 500,000 people. You'll learn top strategies from the country's leading expert on the SAT, Allen Cheng, a Harvard grad and perfect scorer. Bonus: Want to get a perfect SAT score? Read our famous guide on how to score a perfect 1600 on the SAT.
