How do you know what is a good SAT score and what is not?

Question

Is there a chart that breaks it down?

Answer 1

Well you can usually judge what is a good score by comparing it to your PSAT grades and practice SAT exams. If you score higher than you normally do, it's a good thing.

Then, in comparison to others who took it, you can look at your percentile rank. If you get in the 50% then you did better then 50% of people and worse than 50%, giving you an average score. Average scores are 500s on each section, adding up to a 1500.

Usually, solid scores would be anything above 1800 though, which would put you in about the 80%.

More importantly, you need to look at the average scores of people who attend the college that you want to go to. IF the average score of people who go to Florida State University is 1600 then you should shoot for a grade higher than a 1600. If you are looking for any type of  scholarships, look at the average scores of scholarship recipients and shoot for a higher grade than the average.

But the most important way to gage your success is by your level of happiness after you complete the test. If you think you studied as hard as you could, and you feel that you did all you could on the test, then your score is good in my books, and should be in yours.

Whatever you get, I hope yuor happy with it. Good luck.

Answer 2

There's no such thing as a "good" or "bad" SAT score.  That's like saying whether a B is a "good" or "bad" grade.  It depends on the person.  However, you can compare the SAT scores of people who go to the top schools in the U.S.  Students in the top 20 U.S. colleges scored an average of a 2100 out of 2400.  If you want to compare yourself to them, a 2100 would be a "good" SAT score.

Another way to see how well you scored on the SATs in comparison to other people who took it at the same time as you is to look at what percentile you scored in each category and overall.  Your percentile tells you what percent of students you scored better than.  For example, if you're in the 70th percentile, that means you scored better than 70% of the students who took the SATs at the same time as you.  The highest percentile you can get is a 99th percentile.  However, judging whether the percentile you scored in is good or bad is also subjective because one person might think 70th percentile is bad and another might think it's pretty good.