Have you taken the SAT recently and need help deciding whether you should retake the test? Or maybe you haven’t taken the SAT yet but want to develop a target score. One of the best ways to understand your SAT scores is to understand your SAT score percentiles. You can learn to maximize your study time, find the biggest score gains, and impress your dream school by understanding percentile rankings. Read on for a guide to maximizing your SAT score—and your college admissions chances—by using SAT score percentiles. Bonus: Want to get a perfect SAT score? Read our famous guide on how to score a perfect 1600 on the SAT. You'll learn top strategies from the country's leading expert on the SAT, Allen Cheng, a Harvard grad and perfect scorer. No matter your level, you'll find useful advice here - this strategy guide has been read by over 500,000 people. Read the 1600 SAT guide today and start improving your score. In addition to the composite score you get on the SAT (i.e., that number between 400 and 1600), you'll get a percentile ranking, ranging from 1 to 99. The SAT gives you a percentile ranking for your overall composite score as well as for each of the twosection scores: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and Math. Your percentile tells you how you did on the SAT compared with everyone else who took the test. For example, if you got a composite percentile of 76, this means you scored higher than 76% of students on the whole test. If you got a percentile of 47 on the Math section, you did better than 47% of students on SAT Math. An example of an SAT score report with percentiles. Your percentile score is not like a grade out of 100. For instance, if you get a percentile of 90, this doesn't mean you got exactly 90% of the questions right. It just means that compared with everyone who took the SAT, you scored higher than 90% of them. (For more info on how the SAT is scored, see our scoring guide.) So, why do percentiles matter? Colleges use percentiles to compare you with other students. 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. 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. OK, so you get that percentile rankings are important. 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? Luckily, the College Board releases data about composite scores and matching percentile rankings to help you figure this out. These numbers change slightly from year to year, but we have the most recent info from 2022. We've summarized the SAT percentile ranges here in a percentile chart. Just find your score to see your estimated percentile. Something to note about these percentile ranks is that they change the fastest with the middle scores. For example, the difference between 1450 and 1600—the highest possible score—is only 4 percentile points, 96 to 99. However, the same point gap between 1100 and 1250 has a vast percentile difference—61 to 81. This means that if you scored 1100 or lower, increasing your overall composite by just 150 points would give a vast boost to your percentile rank and your admissions competitiveness! Need more help with SAT Prep? Send your parent or guardian our guide to the SAT to get them thinking about the test prep process. We also have data on percentile rankings for score ranges in EBRW and Math. Check out the chart below to see how your scores stack up. Source: SAT Understanding Scores 2022 Again, note that the percentile ranks change dramatically toward the middle scores: 500 in EBRW is only 42%, but 600 is 73%. In other words, a 100-point improvement—which is very manageable with some smart studying—could transform your score from poor to good. Note that the Math curve is more competitive near the top than the EBRW curve is. A 760 is in the 96th percentile on Math but in the 99th percentile on EBRW, and a 700 is in the 91st percentile on Math but in the 93rd percentile on EBRW. This means that if you were aiming for the same percentile on both sections, you'd have to get a higher score on Math than you would on EBRW. For more info on SAT scores and rankings, check out our guide to average SAT scores in which we also look at score breakdowns by gender and ethnic group. We know that percentiles are important and that, in some cases, a relatively small composite score increase can have a huge effect on your percentile ranking. However, your target composite score for the colleges you want to apply to is the most important. While percentiles help college admissions officers compare your scores, schools also have their own score ranges that typically don’t change much from year to year. To find a college’s SAT score ranges, search "[School Name] SAT scores PrepScholar" on Google to find our Admission Requirements page with its SAT/ACT score ranges and info on GPA ranges and overall competitiveness. For more tips on how to use this strategy (and for a table you can fill out for your specific colleges), see our guide on what a good SAT score is. If you're applying to schools this year and aren't sure if they've gone test-optional due to COVID-19, you can read more about that here. Maximize your study time by setting a personal SAT target score. Finally, SAT percentile rankings can be a useful tool for you. Especially if you’re deciding whether or not to retake the SAT, percentiles really help put your SAT scores in context. For example, the difference between your 700 in EBRW and 600 in Math might not seem enormous, but that EBRW score is in the 93rd percentile, while that Math score is in the 75th percentile. A huge difference! This means you can get more bang for your buck if you focus on the Math section for your retake. Increasing your Math score by 100 points can raise your percentile from 75 to 91. However, raising your EBRW score from 700 to 800, though super impressive, only improves your percentile ranking by 5%. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should ignore EBRW—in fact, a gain of just 50 points would put you in the 99th percentile! But recognizing that you stand to gain more with Math can ultimately help you prioritize your study time better. Now that you know the ins and outs of national SAT percentiles, check out what the average SAT scores are, and take a look at the average SAT scores in your state. Trying to figure out your SAT target score? Or maybe you took the SAT but aren't sure whether your score is competitive. Our guide can help you develop a personal SAT target score based on the colleges you're applying to. Reaching for the stars? Check out what a good SAT score for the Ivy League looks like. Ready to go beyond just reading about the SAT? Then you'll love the free five-day trial for our SAT Complete Prep program. Designed and written by PrepScholar SAT experts, our SAT program customizes to your skill level in over 40 subskills so that you can focus your studying on what will get you the biggest score gains. Click on the button below to try it out!
What Are SAT Score Percentiles?
What Are the Percentile Ranges for the SAT?
SAT Composite Score Range Percentile Score 1550-1600 99 to 99+ 1500-1550 98 to 99 1450-1500 96 to 98 1400-1450 93 to 96 1350-1400 90 to 93 1300-1350 86 to 90 1250-1300 81 to 86 1200-1250 75 to 81 1150-1200 68 to 75 1100-1150 61 to 68 1050-1100 51 to 61 1000-1050 43 to 51 950-1000 35 to 43 900-950 27 to 35 850-900 19 to 27 800-850 13 to 19 750-800 7 to 13 700-750 3 to 7 650-700 1 to 3 600-650 1- to 1 550-600 1- 500-550 1- 450-500 1- 400-450 1- 
SAT Percentile Charts by Section
Section Score Range SAT EBRW Percentiles SAT Math Percentiles 780-800 99+ 98 to 99+ 760-780 99 to 99+ 96 to 98 740-760 97 to 99 94 to 96 720-740 96 to 97 93 to 94 700-720 93 to 96 91 to 93 680-700 91 to 93 89 to 91 660-680 87 to 91 86 to 89 640-660 83 to 87 83 to 86 620-640 78 to 83 79 to 83 600-620 73 to 78 75 to 79 580-600 67 to 73 70 to 75 560-580 61 to 67 64 to 70 540-560 55 to 61 58 to 64 520-540 49 to 55 51 to 58 500-520 42 to 49 44 to 51 480-500 35 to 42 38 to 44 460-480 29 to 35 32 to 38 440-460 23 to 29 27 to 32 420-440 17 to 23 22 to 27 400-420 12 to 17 16 to 22 380-400 7 to 12 12 to 16 360-380 4 to 7 7 to 12 340-360 2 to 4 4 to 7 320-340 1 to 2 2 to 4 300-320 1 1 to 2 280-300 1- to 1 1 260-280 1- 1- to 1 240-260 1- 1- 220-240 1- 1- 200-220 1- 1- How Can Knowing Your SAT Percentile Help You?
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Halle Edwards
About the Author
Halle Edwards graduated from Stanford University with honors. In high school, she earned 99th percentile ACT scores as well as 99th percentile scores on SAT subject tests. She also took nine AP classes, earning a perfect score of 5 on seven AP tests. As a graduate of a large public high school who tackled the college admission process largely on her own, she is passionate about helping high school students from different backgrounds get the knowledge they need to be successful in the college admissions process.
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