college board essay scoring guide

What Is the SAT Essay?

College Board

• February 28, 2024

The SAT Essay section is a lot like a typical writing assignment in which you’re asked to read and analyze a passage and then produce an essay in response to a single prompt about that passage. It gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your reading, analysis, and writing skills—which are critical to readiness for success in college and career—and the scores you’ll get back will give you insight into your strengths in these areas as well as indications of any areas that you may still need to work on.

The Essay section is only available in certain states where it’s required as part of SAT School Day administrations. If you’re going to be taking the SAT during school , ask your counselor if it will include the Essay section. If it’s included, the Essay section will come after the Reading and Writing and Math sections and will add an additional 50 minutes .

What You’ll Do

• Read a passage between 650 and 750 words in length.
• Explain how the author builds an argument to persuade an audience.
• Support your explanation with evidence from the passage.

You won’t be asked to agree or disagree with a position on a topic or to write about your personal experience.

The Essay section shows how well you understand the passage and are able to use it as the basis for a well-written, thought-out discussion. Your score will be based on three categories.

Reading: A successful essay shows that you understood the passage, including the interplay of central ideas and important details. It also shows an effective use of textual evidence.

Analysis: A successful essay shows your understanding of how the author builds an argument by:

• Examining the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, and other stylistic and persuasive techniques
• Supporting and developing claims with well-chosen evidence from the passage

Writing: A successful essay is focused, organized, and precise, with an appropriate style and tone that varies sentence structure and follows the conventions of standard written English.

Learn more about how the SAT Essay is scored.

Want to practice? Log in to the Bluebook™ testing application , go to the Practice and Prepare section, and choose full-length practice test . There are 3 practice Essay   tests. Once you submit your response, go to MyPractice.Collegeboard.org , where you’ll see your essay, a scoring guide and rubric so that you can score yourself, and student samples for various scores to compare your self-score with a student at the same level.

After the Test

You’ll get your Essay score the same way you’ll get your scores for the Reading and Writing and Math sections. If you choose to send your SAT scores to colleges, your Essay score will be reported along with your other section scores from that test day. Even though Score Choice™   allows you to choose which day’s scores you send to colleges, you can never send only some scores from a certain test day. For instance, you can’t choose to send Math scores but not SAT Essay scores.

Until 2021, the SAT Essay was also an optional section when taking the SAT on a weekend. That section was discontinued in 2021.

If you don’t have the opportunity to take the SAT Essay section as part of the SAT, don’t worry. There are other ways to show your writing skills as part of the work you’re already doing on your path to college. The SAT can help you stand out on college applications , as it continues to measure the writing and analytical skills that are essential to college and career readiness. And, if you want to demonstrate your writing skills even more, you can also consider taking an AP English course .

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How to Get a Perfect 8|8|8 SAT Essay Score

SAT Writing , SAT Essay

The SAT Essay is scored separately from the rest of the SAT now, thanks to the changes that went into effect in March 2016 .

While the essay is now optional (you don't automatically have to take it every time you take the SAT), s ome colleges still require students to submit SAT essay scores with their applications . Learning how to consistently write a perfect SAT essay will be a huge boost to your application to these schools.

In this article, we'll discuss what it takes to get a perfect 8/8/8 on the SAT essay and what you need to do to train yourself to get this top score.

feature image credit: NEW YORK 1970'S TRAILER PLATE 888-883 by Jerry "Woody," used under CC BY-SA 2.0 /Cropped from original.

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

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In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

The Big Secret

You’ll have to practice this. The perfect SAT essay is like a puzzle that happens to be in written form—it can be mastered, but to do it well and completely every time requires practice with a lot of sample topics. You need to learn the format of an effective essay and how to fill out a complete essay within 50 minutes.

What an SAT Essay Score of 8 Means

If you’re already scoring a 5 or above in all three areas on practice (or real) SAT essays, you have a shot at completely nailing what the graders want, represented by a score of 8/8/8, with a little practice.

But there’s something important to remember in your question for perfection: on the SAT essay, an 8 in all categories is not always achievable. We’ve got good news and bad news for those of you who are determined to score an 8/8/8 on the SAT essay.

The Bad News

Because the whole essay task (reading, analyzing, planning, and writing) must be completed in 50 minutes, getting an 8 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing requires some luck.

You have to read the article and analyze the way the author builds her/his argument, pick out the most important components to the argument, find evidence to support your interpretation, and plan out your essay before you can even start writing.

A lot depends on how quickly you can come up with a thesis and relevant support for whatever the prompt happens to be—you might find some articles easier to read and analyze the argumentative structure of than others.

You'll need to use precise language to show mastery of English writing. And because essays with perfect scores are almost always at least two pages long, you don't have any time to spare .

If you trip up on your execution of any of these aspects, the graders might not give your SAT essay an 8/8/8.

The Good News

Because the essay is so formulaic, it's always possible to get a 6 across the board . Sometimes you might find the author's argument to analyze harder than others, or sometimes you might find the article more difficult to get through, but you will always be able to impress them enough to get a 6/6/6.

No college worth its salt is going to base your college admissions decision on getting those last two points on an essay you had 50 minutes to write (especially when the essay is optional). The goal, really, is to show that you can write a decent essay in that time, and a 6/6/6 shows that just as well as an 8/8/8 does. But you should aim as high as you can, so keep reading to find out what it really takes to get a perfect score on the SAT essay.

The Difference Between a 6 and an 8

If we asked the College Board what the difference is between a 6 and an 8 SAT essay, they would direct us to the scoring rubric that shows the criteria for a 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing. (SAT essays are scored by two graders who each rate your essay on a scale of 1-4 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing; the two graders' scores are added together to get scores out of 8 for each domain.)

Below, we've excerpted the criteria for a 3 and a 4 in all three domains and described the differences between the 3 and 4 score levels for Reading, Analysis, and Writing . We’ve marked the differences between the 3 and 4 criteria in bold.

Let’s condense the information above. A perfect 4 essay :

• is extremely clear
• is consistent, smooth, and easy to read
• has few errors
• is not repetitive in content or language
• is sufficiently detailed (using evidence from the text) to fully support the writer’s thesis
• demonstrates that you understand the text and the author’s claim(s)

In other words, you need to excel in every one of these aspects to get a perfect score.

A Sample Essay

Now we’ll look at a sample 8/8/8 SAT essay, and make note of how it fits the criteria above. The prompt (taken from The Official SAT Study Guide ) for the sample essay is as follows:

Write an essay in which you explain how Peter S. Goodman builds an argument to persuade his audience that news organizations should increase the amount of professional foreign news coverage provided to people in the United States. In your essay, analyze how Goodman uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

The passage to which this prompt refers appears on pp. 183-185 of The Official SAT Study Guide (March 2016 & Beyond) , or on slightly different pages in later editions. You'll need the passage to follow along with the sample essay below.

Here’s the essay. Read it first, and we’ll have annotations below.

     In the article “Foreign News at a Crisis Point,” Peter S. Goodman eloquently argues the ‘point’ that news organizations should increase the amount of professional foreign news coverage provided to people in the United States. Goodman builds his argument by using facts and evidence, addressing the counterarguments, and couching it all in persuasive and compelling language.

     Goodman begins the article by bombarding the reader with facts and statistics. He states that, according to a census conducted by the American Journalism Review, the number of full-time foreign news correspondents in the United States dropped from 307 in 2003 to 234 in 2011. In addition, the AJR survey also discovered that “the space devoted to foreign news [in American papers] had shrunk by 53 percent” in the last 25 years.

     Beginning the article with all of these facts and figures has a couple of strengtheing effects on Goodman’s argument. First, by starting out with hard evidence, Goodman lays the groundwork of his own credibility. He’s not just writing an opinion piece—his opinion is backed by the truth. This will bring the readers onboard and make them more likely to trust everything else he says. Second, because Goodman presents these facts without much explaining/interpreting, the reader is forced to do the math herself. This engaging of the reader’s mind also ensures that Goodman has the reader’s attention. When the reader does the math to find a drop of 73 full-time foreign news correspondents employed by US papers in just 8 short years, she will find herself predisposed to agree with Goodman’s call for more professional foreign news reporting.

     In addition to employing facts to his argument’s advantage, Goodman also cunningly discusses the counterargument to his position. By writing about how social media and man-on-the-ground reporting has had some positive impact on the state of foreign news reporting, Goodman heads off naysayers at the pass. It would have been very easy for Goodman to elide over the whole issue of citizen reporting, but the resultant one-sided argument would have been much less convincing. Instead, Goodman acknowledges things like “the force of social media during the Arab Spring, as activists convened and reacted to changing circumstances.” As a result, when he partially refutes this counterargument, stating the “unease” many longtime profession correspondents feel over the trend of ‘citizen journalism’ feel, the reader is much more likely to believe him. After all, Goodman acknowledges that social media does have some power. Knowing that Goodman takes the power of social media seriously will make the reader more inclined, in turn, to take Goodman’s concern about the limits of social media seriously.

     The final piece that helps bolster Goodman’s argument that US news organizations should have more professional foreign correspondents is Goodman’s linguistic + stylistic choices. Goodman uses contrasts to draw the reader deeper into his mindset. By setting up the contrast between professional reporters as “informational filters” that discriminate good from bad and amateur, man-on-the-spot reporters as undiscriminating “funnels,” Goodman forces the reader to view the two in opposition and admit that professional filters are to be preferred over funnels that add “speculatio, propaganda, and other white noise” to their reporting. In addition, Goodman drives the reader along toward agreeing with his conclusion in the penultimate paragraph of the article with the repetition of the phrase “We need.” With every repetition, Goodman hammers even further home the inescapable rightness of his argument. The use of “We” more generally through the article serves to make the readers feel sympathetic towards Goodman and identify with him.

     By employing the rhetorical techniques of presenting facts, acknowledging the other side, and using persuasive language, Goodman convinces the reader of his claim.

Here are our notes on what stands out in this essay (general comments are in purple, spelling/grammar errors are highlighted in yellow):

Note that not every 8/8/8 essay needs to have exactly the same items in here, nor do you need to argue in exactly the same way. But the elements in this essay make it a standout and demonstrate clear mastery.

And now for the million-dollar question:

What Makes This SAT Essay an 8 Rather Than a 6?

Maybe you get the theory behind what makes an essay an 8/8/8, but how can you tell the difference between a 6 and an 8 in practice? Read on to find out what distinguishes this particular SAT essay as a perfect 8 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing.

Precise Language

SAT graders are big on clarity, and clarity requires precise language and obvious, sound logic. In this essay, vivid language is used effectively and appropriately:

• Goodman is described as bombarding the reader with facts and figures
• The writer describes Goodman as arguing his point using not just language but persuasive and compelling language :
• The effect of Goodman’s argument is not just that it convinces the reader, but that " the reader…will find herself predisposed to agree with Goodman’s call for more professional foreign news reporting. "

All of this clear and precise language helps support and explain the author's point (just as Goodman’s language supports his point in the text!).

Effective Analysis and Organization

The writer's clarity extends to her logic as well. Sufficient background is given to make it clear the writer read and understood the text. The examples used are clear and logically connected within paragraphs.

The writer also makes sure to identify the what/why/what of the author's argumentative devices:

• What are the techniques the author used to persuade the reader of his claim?
• Why did the author use them?
• What effect does their use have on the reader?

The organization of the essay follows the organization set out in the introduction: the writer first discusses facts and evidence, then the presentation and refutation of a counterargument, then compelling language. Organization in the essay is aided by transitions between all paragraphs, which create a smooth, consistent argument that is easy to follow.

Consistency Throughout

The clarity of the argument and the lack of errors remain consistent from start to finish. The highlighted errors are few and do not detract or distract from the meaning of the essay. The wording of the thesis statement in the introduction and the conclusion is similar but not identical, and the description of how Goodman builds his argument is the same.

The author uses a variety of words (marked in blue) and sentence structures to convey similar ideas in different ways throughout the essay. For instance, social media , man-on-the-ground (or man-on-the-spot ) reporting , citizen journalism , and amateur reporting are all different words and phrases used to describe the same phenomenon of non-professional foreign news correspondents.

In paragraph 4, there's also a good example of a skillfully executed variation in sentence structure. “Knowing that Goodman takes the power of social media seriously will make the reader more inclined…” could easily be the simpler “Goodman takes the power of social media seriously, which makes the reader more likely to agree…” This kind of linguistic "flourish" can be found in most top-scoring SAT Essays.

Note that all of the varied usage described above is effective as well as varied. SAT vocab words and differening sentence structures aren't thrown into the essay haphazardly—it's clear, effective writing like what you might read in the New York Times.

Detailed Support and Length

The essay is long enough to detail three complex examples (discussing Goodman’s use of facts and evidence, a counterargument, and vivid language) and include introductory and concluding paragraphs.

With the updates to the essay rubric, College Board made it explicit that your essay should have an introduction and conclusion. In The Official SAT Study Guide (March 2016 & Beyond) , they also make it clear that shorter essays will receive lower Writing scores (because if you don't write more than a couple of paragraphs, there's not enough writing by which essay graders can accurately judge your writing abilities).

But length means nothing if there isn't valuable information filling the space, so long SAT essays also need to be detailed—this author uses the space to give lots of context for her examples.

Dos and Don’ts for an 8/8/8 SAT Essay

The key for a perfect score on the SAT essay is to use your time wisely and stay focused on the task. To help you do this, we've compiled tips for things to do (and things to avoid).

Do spend time:

• Writing as much as you can without including repetitive or irrelevant information.
• Revising the first and last paragraphs (they stand out in readers’ minds).
• Making sure you have effective transitions for a seamless essay.
• Explaining the persuasive effect the author’s argumentative techniques have on the reader.

Don't spend time:

• Thinking of “smart-sounding" evidence —analysis of how the author used a personal anecdote is just as viable as a discussion of the author’s use of logos and other rhetorical strategies.
• Trying to correct every single error —the grammar and the spelling do not have to be perfect to score an 8 in Writing. This doesn't mean that you should just leave sentence fragments all over the place, but it does mean that accidentally leaving off the last letter of a word or making a small subject/verb agreement error won't be the end of the world (or of your perfect SAT essay score). Spend the extra time trying to write more and develop your points.
• Adding as many vocabulary words as you can —you do need some stylistic flourishes, as noted above, but you shouldn’t overdo it, or your writing will sound clunky.

How to Train to Improve Your SAT Essay Score

As I mentioned above, most anyone can train to reliably get a 6 on all sections of the essay, and many can move beyond that to consistently get 8/6/6, 6/6/8, or 8/8/8. Here’s a framework for how to do this:

• Read through our complete list of SAT essay prompts .
• Memorize a list of persuasive techniques that you can find in most essay prompt articles.
• Start by practicing with extended time (80 minutes) so you can feel what it takes to get a top-scoring essay. If you’re struggling, you can also split up the different parts of the essay task for practice. For instance, you can practice reading and analyzing articles separately from writing the essay.
• Find a way to grade your essay . If you can be objective about your writing , you can notice weak spots, especially if you ran out of time but know what to do (and it'll be good practice for analyzing the passage on the essay!). Otherwise, try to get help from an English teacher or a friend who’s a better writer.
• Start narrowing your essay time down to 50 minutes to mirror the actual test.

What’s Next?

Ready to get started with practice essays? Check out our thorough analysis of the SAT essay prompt and our complete list of prompts to practice with .

Use our 15 tips to improve your SAT essay score .

Follow along as I take you through how to write a top-scoring SAT essay, step by step .

Took the old SAT essay and want to know what's changed? Read our complete guide to the March 2016 SAT essay here .

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Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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If you’re like many high school students, the hardest part of the SAT isn’t the hours of prep work that you put into it. Yes, that’s definitely hard, but at least you have some control over it. There’s some reassurance in being able to direct your time towards productive and, hopefully, satisfying results. What’s harder for many students like you is the time between your test and your score release. There’s nothing you can do to speed the process, so waiting patiently (or impatiently) is your only option.

If you’re awaiting SAT scores, or perhaps you’ve just received them, you might be wondering how your test is scored, what the scores mean, or even what to do if you believe your SAT score is incorrect. Read on for CollegeVine’s answers to all your SAT score questions.

How is the SAT scored?

Most of your SAT answers were multiple-choice bubbles that you meticulously filled in with a #2 pencil. Even the grid-in math questions involved those tiny little bubbles. So it’s probably no surprise that those bubbles play an integral part in scoring your exam. With millions of students taking SAT or PSAT-related exams each year, the ability to score each exam quickly and efficiently is beyond important. After all, imagine how long the wait would be if each test had to be scored by hand.

What is a raw score?

Multiple-choice and grid-in answers are scored by a computer that scans your answer sheet. This computer produces your raw score, which, simply speaking, is the number of questions answered correctly. Beginning in spring 2016, there is no penalty on the SAT for incorrect or unanswered questions, so your raw score simply accounts for the number of questions that you answered correctly.

A separate raw score is produced for the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing Section and for the Math section. Each of these scores is then converted to a scaled score of 200 to 800. This conversion accounts for slight differences in difficulty among different versions of the test, so your resulting score is consistent across test forms.

How is the SAT essay scored?

If you took the optional essay section of the SAT, you will remember that this portion of the test was the one that did not involve those little bubbled-in answers. Instead, you produced a written product, which obviously must be scored quite differently from a computer-scanned answer sheet.

Each essay written for the SAT is scored by two separate and independent readers. The readers evaluate essays on three dimensions. These dimensions include reading, analysis, and writing.

For the reading dimension, scorers assess your understanding of the passage, including central ideas and important details. For the analysis dimension, scorers evaluate your understanding of how the author builds an argument and how you support and develop your ideas with evidence from the text. Finally, for the writing dimension, essay readers score your ability to craft a focused, organized, and precise essay with appropriate style and tone.

Each essay reader will award between one and four points for each dimension. These scores are then added together to create a score ranging from two to eight for each dimension. If the scores awarded for any dimension differ by more than one point, a scoring director will score the essay. This automatic validation helps to ensure the universal accuracy of the essay scoring process. For more information about the SAT Essay scoring process, including a rubric of scoring guidelines for each dimension, review the College Board’s SAT Essay Scoring .

When will I receive my SAT score?

The release date for SAT scores varies depending on when you took the test. Tests administered in the fall are usually scored and released in about three to four weeks. Tests administered in the spring tend to take a little longer, probably due to the large volume of students taking them. These are scored and released in about five to six weeks. For an exact calendar of score release dates organized by test date, check out the College Board’s table of When to Expect Scores .

How will I receive my SAT score?

Sat scores online.

The easiest way to receive your SAT score is through the College Board website. If you registered for the test online, you have already created an online College Board account. Log in to your account on the score release day to view your results.

SAT Scores By Paper Score Report

If you do not have an online College Board account, or you registered through the mail and did not include your College Board account on your registration, you will receive a copy of your scores in the mail. This will be mailed around the same day that scores are released online.

SAT Scores By Phone

You may also receive your SAT scores by telephone beginning on the date of the score release, but there is a fee attached to this service and you will need to provide a credit card number when you call. To receive scores by phone use the following phone numbers:

Domestic: 866-756-7346

International: 212-713-7789

TTY: 888-857-2477 (U.S.), 609-882-4118 (international)

What do my SAT scores mean?

When you receive your scores, you’re probably expecting a number between 400 and 1600. You will get this, and a whole lot more, on your official SAT score report. So what do all these different numbers mean?

SAT Total Scores

This is the number you’re probably most familiar with when it comes to SAT scores. It is a single number between 400 and 1600 and represents your total score. This total score is calculated by adding your score from the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section (200-800) with your total score from the Math section (200-800). You will also receive a percentile accompanying your total score. This number shows you how your score compares to the scores received by other students taking the SAT.

SAT Section Scores

These are the individual section scores between 200 and 800 for the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section and the Math section. The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section score is a combination of the Reading Test score and the Writing and Language Test score. The Math section score is a combination of the Math Test – Calculator score and the Math Test – No Calculator score.

SAT Essay Scores

The SAT Essay scores will include three scored dimensions. The dimensions scored are Reading, Analysis, and Writing. Each dimension is scored on a scale from two to eight points. The score report will show the prompt you responded to, your essay itself, and a link to the Essay Scoring Guide .

Other Score Components

Although the total scores, section scores, and essay scores are the most important numbers on your score report, they are not the only numbers.

You will also receive test scores ranging from 10-40 for the content in each of the tests: Reading, Writing and Language, and Math.

You will see cross-test scores ranging from 10-40 as well. These scores show your performance across the three tests in the domains of Analysis in History/Social Studies and Analysis in Science.

Finally, you’ll see subscores ranging from 1-15, which reflect your performance in the following skill areas:

• Command of Evidence
• Words in Context
• Expression of Ideas
• Standard English Conventions
• Heart of Algebra
• Problem Solving and Data Analysis
• Passport to Advanced Math

Although these scores aren’t necessarily important to colleges or universities, they can be used as feedback to guide your studying for any future SAT exams you might choose to take.

Discover how your SAT score affects your chances

As part of our free guidance platform, our Admissions Assessment tells you what schools you need to improve your SAT score for and by how much. Sign up to get started today.

Is my SAT score good enough for schools?

There is no standard SAT score required for college admissions. The exact range of SAT scores admitted to each college varies widely depending on how competitive the school’s admissions are and the various other factors considered on every application, such as grades and extracurricular activities. To get an idea of the SAT scores expected at the college or university of your choice, look them up online. A simple online search query with the college name and the term “average SAT score” should yield the results for which you’re looking.

Although there is no minimum SAT score required for general college admissions, the College Board does set benchmarks that assess your college readiness. These benchmarks are designed to:

• Identify students who are on track for success in college and career readiness.
• Identify students who may need extra support while there is still time for improvement.
• Find students who may be ready for more challenging course work.

The benchmarks are not intended to assign academic tracks, discourage students from pursuing college, or keep students from participating in challenging courses. Instead, these benchmarks are designed by the College Board to predict a 75% likelihood of achieving at least a C in a set of first-semester college courses.

The benchmarks are set separately for each section. The current Evidence-Based Reading and Writing benchmark score is 480. The current Math benchmark score is 530. Your score report will include your performance compared to the benchmark scores. This comparison is categorized by color with the following designations:

• Green: Your section score meets or exceeds the benchmark.
• Yellow: Your section score is within one year’s academic growth of the benchmark.
• Red: Your section score is below the benchmark by more than one year’s academic growth.

How do I send my SAT scores to schools?

Sending sat scores before test day.

Every time you register for the SAT, you can order four free score reports to colleges and scholarship programs at no cost to you. This is a good choice because it’s the only free option available, and many colleges will view your early submission as a demonstration of your interest.

Although some students might hesitate to send scores before you know them, if this is likely the last time that you’re taking the test or your test date falls close to the application deadline, you should definitely consider taking advantage of the free score reports. For more information about sending test scores before you’ve received them, read CollegeVine’s Should I Send My Test Scores To Colleges Before I Know Them?

Sending SAT Scores After Test Day

There are two scenarios for sending scores after test day. If you leave the test on cloud nine and you are certain that you aced it, you can still take advantage of the four free score reports up to nine days after the test. Simply log in to your College Board account online and send your scores.

If you wait longer, or would rather postpone sending any scores until you’ve seen them yourself, you’ll still be able to send scores easily through your online College Board account, but you’ll have to pay to do so. These score reports are $12 each ( fee waivers are available if needed). A rush report is an additional $31.

What should I do if I think my SAT was scored incorrectly?

There are a couple levels of review available if you think your SAT was scored incorrectly.

Student Answer Service (SAS)

First, if you just have an inkling that something is off but aren’t totally sure, you can request a Student Answer Verification. This service includes an overview of the difficulty of each question answered correctly, incorrectly, or omitted and of the type of test questions.

Essentially, the Student Answer Service is a more specific overview of your performance for you to look over. It is not reviewed by anyone else, but is provided for your own personal use to better understand what went wrong (or right!). If your SAS report reveals that you got every difficult question wrong, it’s likely that your exam was graded correctly, and you may not have realized how hard those questions actually were at the time of the exam.

This answer verification service is not designed to be used as a test prep or practice tool. You may request this service when you register for the test or up to five months after your test date. The fee for this service is $13.50. See the SAT Answer Verification Services Order Form for 2016-17 for more information.

Question and Answer Service (QAS)

You may also choose to receive a Question and Answer Verification Service on select exam administrations. This service is available for all May administrations of the test, and for other select administrations within Canada and the U.S. For a calendar of availability for this service, see the SAT Answer Verification Services Order Form for 2016-17 .

The Question and Answer Service includes a booklet copy of the test you took with a table of correct answers and scoring information. You will also receive a report that lists the type and level of difficulty of each question, along with what your answer was, and whether it was correct, incorrect, or omitted. Again, this service does not include a review by anyone else, but is provided for your own personal use to better understand where you failed to gain points. This service costs $18.00.

Score Verification

If you still don’t think your test was scored correctly, you may request a score verification. This is a good idea if your score is very different from what you expected and you believe you may have made an obvious mistake in marking your answers, or if your essay appears blank or completely illegible when you view it in your online score report. In this case, you may have written your essay in ink (which does not scan properly), and it would not have been assessed appropriately.

You may request a multiple-choice hand score verification and/or an essay score verification. Each service costs $55 (or $27.50 for fee-waiver users). Your score verification fee will be refunded if your score changes because of an irregularity in the College Board’s scanning and/or scoring processes. If your score does not change, if it changes due to an obvious error you made in marking your answer sheet, or if you wrote your essay in pen, or otherwise failed to follow directions for marking your answers and completing test information, your fee will not be refunded.

Keep in mind when requesting score verification that your new score will be final, regardless of whether it is higher or lower than your original score. Also, you should know that the verification of essay scores does not include rereading the essay or an appeal of the essay score. It simply reviews the essay visually to ensure that it was legible to the original readers who scored it.

For more about score verification services, check out the College Board’s Important Information for Using the SAT® Score Verification Service .

To learn more about the SAT, check out these CollegeVine posts:

• ACT vs SAT/SAT Subject Tests
• Are PSAT Scores Related to SAT Scores?
• What Should I Bring to My SAT?
• A Guide to the New SAT

Want to know how your SAT score impacts your chances of acceptance to your dream schools? Our free Chancing Engine will not only help you predict your odds, but also let you know how you stack up against other applicants, and which aspects of your profile to improve. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to gain access to our Chancing Engine and get a jumpstart on your college strategy!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Scoring CLEP Essays

College Composition and Spanish with Writing essays are graded by college professors. Below are additional facts about essay scoring:

• Essays are scored by readers who are college faculty members, not by computer programs that search for patterns or word pairings.
• Each reader participates in an online training course and passes a certification test before the scoring session.
• Scoring rubrics and guidelines are designed to measure college-level skills and knowledge.
• Test takers respond to two essay topics, spending approximately 45 minutes on each. Each essay is scored by at least two separate readers.

Related Topics

• SAT BootCamp
• SAT MasterClass
• SAT Private Tutoring
• SAT Proctored Practice Test
• ACT Private Tutoring
• Academic Subjects
• College Essay Workshop
• Academic Writing Workshop
• AP English FRQ BootCamp
• 1:1 College Essay Help
• Online Instruction
• Free Resources

Guide to Digital SAT Scoring

Bonus Material: PrepMaven SAT Score Ranges for 500 Top Schools

Taking the SAT as part of your college application process? If you are, you know that the SAT is a competition, and understanding exactly how SAT scoring works is crucial to making sure you’re doing test prep in a way that maximizes your chances of success. 

With the transition to the digital SAT in 2024, the way the SAT is scored has changed drastically. In this post, we’re going to cover everything the College Board has revealed about how the new adaptive SAT is scored, as well as what that means for college admissions. 

Though this digital SAT format is relatively new, PrepMaven has been guiding students to top SAT scores for decades. Our test prep experts have dug into the new digital SAT practice tests and scoured the information released by College Board to compile a comprehensive guide to digital SAT scoring. Everything you need to know about SAT score ranges, adaptive testing, and “good” SAT scores, you’ll find below. 

As an additional free resource, we’ve included our breakdown of SAT score ranges for the top 500 US colleges and universities. By clicking the link below, you’ll see exactly what kind of score it takes to get into the schools you’re thinking of!

Download PrepMaven’s SAT Score Ranges for 500 Top Schools

Jump to section: Digital SAT Score Range Understanding the Digital SAT Score Report Official SAT Score Percentiles Table How Does Adaptive Testing Affect Your SAT Score? What’s a “Good” SAT Score? What are the SAT “College Readiness” Benchmarks? Is the SAT “curved?” Sending SAT Scores: Superscoring vs Score Choice Next steps

Digital SAT Score Range

Although the SAT has changed starting in 2024, the overall score range remains the same. Your total SAT score is the sum of your scores for the Math section and the Reading & Writing section. The theoretical minimum score for each section is 200, and the maximum is 800. Naturally, this means the full SAT score range is from 400 to 1600. 

Since this post is just about SAT scoring, we won’t go too deep into what each of these sections actually involves here. If you want to know what the SAT Math and SAT Reading & Writing sections test or how they’re organized, you can check out a guide to the sections of the SAT here. 

Understanding the Digital SAT Score Report

Below, we’ll break down the sample digital SAT score report that College Board provides on their website. Take a look: 

The SAT score report provides the following information: 

• Section scores
• Overall score
• Section percentiles
• Overall percentile
• Relative strength in the SAT “content domains”

All of this information is crucial! Your SAT scores and percentiles tell you how you stack up against other test takers. The higher your percentile, the better your performance. For example, this sample student performed better than 78% of SAT test takers on the Reading & Writing section, better than 44% of SAT test takers on the Math, and better than 63% of SAT test takers overall. 

The Knowledge and Skills section tells you how you perform in each of the SAT’s “content domains.” In other words, how strong are you across each of the content areas? While this section doesn’t give quite as much information as we’d like (more on that below!), it does tell you generally which areas are worth prioritizing.

For example, this student needs to really focus on their Algebra skills in math, while they’re relatively strong in problem solving and data analysis. 

If you find the language of these “content domains” a little unclear, you’re not alone! For a more explicit breakdown of what SAT Math actually tests, you can check out our post here, where we break down what each of these “content domains” actually means!

You’ll notice that the digital SAT doesn’t show you some key information. It is no longer possible to see which questions you missed–or even how many questions you missed! 

This can be very frustrating, and, honestly, it makes SAT prep more difficult. Improving on the SAT means using your past practice tests to identify strengths and weaknesses, so the more information you can get, the better. Because of how little information you get from the new SAT, we strongly recommend working with an experienced SAT prep tutor who can help you develop a test prep plan tailored to your performance. 

Why does College Board no longer show you how many questions you missed? Well, it has to do with the new adaptive nature of the test, which we break down below. 

And if you want to see what the median SAT scores for the two sections of the SAT look like at different universities, check out PrepMaven’s SAT Score Ranges for 500 Top Schools here.

Official SAT Score Percentiles Table

If you’re wondering how your section scores compare nationally, the College Board has released the following table:

While helpful, this list of SAT score percentiles is less important than the scores and percentiles at your target schools. Always keep your end goal in mind when prepping and evaluating scores.

You can also read more about how to understand the SAT score range in this post , which goes into detail on what “average,” “low,” and “high” SAT scores actually mean. 

Read on to learn more about how the digital SAT’s adaptive testing affects scoring, as well as important strategic considerations when it comes to submitting test scores to colleges!

How Does Adaptive Testing Affect Your SAT Score?

The biggest change with the digital SAT is the incorporation of Multistage Adaptive Testing (MST) . 

How does multistage adaptive testing work on the SAT? Although College Board hasn’t released the algorithm responsible for the adaptive test, we do have a lot of helpful information. 

Each SAT section consists of two “modules” (you can read a breakdown of timing, question number, and more here ). Your first module for each section will contain a roughly even mix of easy, medium, and difficult questions. 

The difficulty of the second module, however, is based on how many questions you miss on the first module. In other words: if you ace the first Math module, your second Math module will contain much more difficult questions. If you miss a lot of questions on the first Reading & Writing module, your second Reading & Writing module will contain easier questions. 

It’s crucial to understand that this means not all questions on the digital SAT are worth the same number of points . Again, we don’t know (and likely never will) the algorithm that calculates your scores on the digital SAT. But we know that harder questions are worth more points, and easier questions are worth fewer points on the new SAT. 

That’s why the new SAT score reports won’t tell you how many questions you missed: the raw number of missed questions can’t actually tell you much about your SAT score. 

We want to make something very, very clear: even though missing more questions in the first module leads to an easier second module, you will never improve your overall score by missing more questions on the first module. 

Remember that harder questions are worth more, so your number one strategy for a high SAT score is the same as it’s always been: try to answer every question correctly. 

Ultimately, this new adaptive system can either be a huge advantage or a huge challenge, depending on how effectively you approach prepping for it. That’s why we’ve made sure our tutors are trained to help you develop a winning, personalized strategy that helps you use digital SAT’s adaptive system to your advantage! Reach out here to get started. 

And, if you’re not quite ready to start SAT prep, do yourself a favor and check out our free spreadsheet of SAT score ranges at top universities–that way, you’ll be able to set your test score goals. 

What’s a “Good” SAT Score?

It’s the classic question: what do you actually need to get on the SAT to be satisfied? But, as with all questions of happiness, it’s really a personal question: a “good” SAT score is the one that works for your goals. 

Before you really go into prepping for the SAT, you should spend some time thinking about what kind of colleges you plan to apply to. Most colleges publish the median SAT scores of their admitted students. Knowing that information can help you decide what SAT score to target: if your SAT score is below the median of your dream school, then it probably isn’t “good” enough.

Because there’s a lot of information to consider (and because we’re such nice people), we’ve done the hard work for you: if you follow this link, you can download a spreadsheet that lists the median SAT scores of admitted students to the top 500 schools in the US. 

We’ve made sure to update this spreadsheet with information from the most recent application cycle, so this is your best bet at understanding what SAT score you need to be a competitive applicant. 

Of course, there are different trends worth following (such as, for example, the ever-increasing median SAT scores at Ivy League schools). We’ve written a full post on the topic here , updated with the latest information on “good” SAT scores and the concrete steps you should take to achieve them. 

What are the SAT “College Readiness” Benchmarks?

Unlike a “good” SAT score, this is more of a statistical question: the College Board sets a benchmark for both sections of the SAT, which you can read more about on their site here. 

These benchmarks are markers of what College Board calls “college readiness,” meaning that anyone below these benchmarks is, theoretically, not ready for the rigors of college study. These SAT benchmarks are fixed: they don’t change from test to test, regardless of how people score. 

The digital SAT “college and career readiness” benchmarks are: 

• Reading and Writing: 480

While your target SAT score is up to you, we highly recommend you aim above these benchmarks . Remember: these are really the minimum levels at which you’re considered ready for college. Any score below these will be a red flag to most colleges. 

Worried about meeting these benchmarks, or just shooting to maximize your score? Our expert SAT tutors have experience working with students at every score range, and can help you create a test prep plan tailored to your goals! Reach out today, and we’ll pair you with your one-on-one tutor. 

Is the SAT Curved?

If you’ve started SAT prepping and have spent any time reading forums or blogs about the SAT, you’ve probably seen people talking about “easier” and “harder” tests being curved differently. We’ll break down what people mean by a test curve, and what that means for your score. 

“Curving” is just a practice by which the designers of a test factor in natural variations in test difficulty, adjusting the scoring to ensure that it’s fair. Technically, the SAT-writers don’t “curve” the test, but they do use a process called “score equating” that ensures the test is scored fairly regardless of when you take it. When you see people online talking about test “curves,” they’re really talking about “score equating.” You can read College Board’s full policy here , but we break it down for you below. 

It’s impossible to make sure that every SAT test is exactly the same difficulty, of course, but College Board doesn’t want you to be disadvantaged if your test date happens to have more difficult questions than another test date. So, they use a process called “score equating” to make sure that, say, a 1500 on the April test is exactly the same as a 1500 on any other SAT. 

Notice that on test 9, you could miss 1 question on math (for a raw score of 57) and still get a perfect 800. On test 10, however, the same raw score gets you a score of 790. Why? Well, it suggests that people tended to do worse on the math section of SAT 9. So, to keep it fair, it took a lower raw score to get a higher section score. 

If you scan through both sheets, you’ll see more slight variations like this. But, at the end of the day, this doesn’t matter much: all that matters is the final section score . With the new digital SAT, you won’t even know how many questions you missed on the real test. 

Read on below to learn more about how submitting your SAT scores to colleges works. 

Sending SAT Scores: Superscoring vs Score Choice

The College Board has two policies that often get confused when it comes to sending your SAT scores to universities: Superscoring and Score Choice. We’ll quickly break them down, since the difference is quite simple. 

SAT Score Choice is a policy offered by College Board. When submitting your SAT scores to a university, Score Choice allows you to select which test dates you want to report. For example, if you took the SAT in March, April, and September, you’ll be able to select whether you want to submit one, two, or all three of those score reports. 

Note: Score Choice doesn’t let you send the Math score from one test and the Reading and Writing score from a different test . Score choice is just about letting you exclude testing dates you don’t want to repeat. 

Most, though not all, universities allow you to use Score Choice to report only those test dates you want them to see. You should always check with each individual university’s website to make sure you’re following their policies, though these will also usually be found in your application portal. 

Superscoring isn’t a policy offered by College Board. Instead, it’s an increasingly common practice used by university admissions departments. If a college “Superscores” as part of its admissions policy, it means they only consider your highest section scores from all your test dates.

Let’s say you took the SAT in April and got the following scores: 640 Math and 550 Reading and Writing (1190 composite). Then, you take it again in August and get a 600 Math and 600 Reading and Writing (1200 composite). If a university Superscores, then they would consider your SAT score as 640 Math and 600 Reading and Writing (1240 Composite), because they’d only look at your highest section scores. 

Almost every university now Superscores . This is great news for you! If you hit your score goal for one section on a test date, you can then put all your energy into prepping for the other section if you retake the test. You don’t need to worry about doing worse the second time around, since the colleges will only consider your highest section scores. 

Few things immediately affect your chances of admission to college like your SAT scores. If you get an SAT score well below the median for your dream school, your odds of acceptance become incredibly slim; get an SAT score well above your school’s median score, and you’ve got an advantage over other applicants. 

That’s why we coach all our test prep students to first identify what their target scores are using our free, constantly up-to-date list of SAT score medians for the top 500 colleges in America, which you can download for free below. 

Once you can set a target, you’ll want to set aside time to prep. We believe students can accomplish a lot through self study, which is why we’ve written comprehensive strategy guides on all the sections of the new digital SAT, all of which you can find in the Related Posts section below. 

But we’ve also seen one undeniable fact from our decades of experience in college admissions and test prep: the students who score the best nearly always take advantage of expert coaches and tutors. We’ve ranked the 15 best SAT Tutoring Services: check out that list here !

As more and more students rely on expert test prep guidance, you don’t want to be left behind. Our tutors have a proven track record of remarkable score improvements, and you can contact us any time to be matched with a private SAT prep tutor. 

Top SAT Posts

• The 15 Best Online SAT Tutoring Services for 2024
• What’s a Good SAT Score for 2024?
• The 2 Sections of the Digital SAT
• SAT Grammar Rules for a Perfect Score
• 5 Tips for SAT Reading Questions
• Hardest SAT Math Questions
• Digital SAT Scoring Guide
• What’s on the SAT Math Section?
• How to Prepare for the Digital SAT
• The 12 Best SAT Prep Courses
• When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Mike is a PhD candidate studying English literature at Duke University. Mike is an expert test prep tutor (SAT/ACT/LSAT) and college essay consultant. Nearly all of Mike’s SAT/ACT students score in the top 5% of test takers; many even score above 1500 on the SAT. His college essay students routinely earn admission into their top-choice schools, including Harvard, Brown, and Dartmouth. And his LSAT students have been accepted In into the top law schools in the country, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Law.

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AP English Language and Composition

Ap english language and composition course and exam description.

This is the core document for the course.

New for 2024-25: MCQs Will Have Four Answer Choices

Starting in the 2024-25 school year, AP English Language and Composition multiple-choice questions (MCQs) will have four answer choices instead of five. This change will take effect with the 2025 exam. All resources have been updated to reflect this change.

Course Overview

AP English Language and Composition is an introductory college-level composition course. Students cultivate their understanding of writing and rhetorical arguments through reading, analyzing, and writing texts as they explore topics like rhetorical situation, claims and evidence, reasoning and organization, and style.

Course and Exam Description

This is the core document for this course. Unit guides clearly lay out the course content and skills and recommend sequencing and pacing for them throughout the year.

Course Resources

Ap english language and composition course overview.

This resource provides a succinct description of the course and exam.

AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description Walk-Through

Learn more about the CED in this interactive walk-through.

AP English Language and Composition Course at a Glance

Excerpted from the AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description, the Course at a Glance document outlines the topics and skills covered in the AP English Language and Composition course, along with suggestions for sequencing.

The Difference Between AP English Language and Composition and AP English Literature and Composition

Learn the similarities and differences between these two courses and exams.

Course Content

The course skills are organized within nine units that scaffold student development of the analysis and composition skills required for college credit. For each unit, the teacher selects a theme or topic and then chooses texts, typically short nonfiction pieces, that enable students to practice and develop the reading and writing skills for that unit. This course framework provides a description of what students should know and be able to do to qualify for college credit or placement. Teachers have the flexibility to organize the course content as they like.

Course Skills

The updated AP English Language and Composition framework included in the course and exam description outlines distinct skills that students should practice throughout the year—skills that will help them learn to think and act like writers.

AP and Higher Education

Higher education professionals play a key role in developing AP courses and exams, setting credit and placement policies, and scoring student work. The AP Higher Education section features information on recruitment and admission, advising and placement, and more.

This chart  shows recommended scores for granting credit, and how much credit should be awarded, for each AP course. Your students can look up credit and placement policies for colleges and universities on the  AP Credit Policy Search .

Meet the AP English Language and Composition Development Committee

The AP Program is unique in its reliance on Development Committees. These committees, made up of an equal number of college faculty and experienced secondary AP teachers from across the country, are essential to the preparation of AP course curricula and exams.

AP English Language and Composition Development Committee

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Guide to GCSE results for England, summer 2024

Grading has continued as normal in summer 2024, following the return to pre-pandemic standards last year. Overall GCSE results are similar to summer 2023.

Today, students in England are receiving more than 5.6 million GCSE results. Students’ grades have been determined by their performance in their exams and assessments. These qualifications provide students with trustworthy evidence of their achievements so they can move forward in their education or training.  

Grading has continued as normal this summer, following the return to pre-pandemic standards last year. It is important that grades reflect what students know, understand and can do, to support students in making the right choices about their next steps. 

The Chief Regulator at Ofqual, Sir Ian Bauckham CBE, said: “Consistent, rigorous standards of grading are producing consistent results.   

“It is evidence that we have settled back into a pattern of dependable and trustworthy results.”

Key points 

Grading has continued as normal this summer and standards have been maintained from summer 2023.   

GCSE entries have increased by more than 250,000 compared with summer 2023. There has been an increase in the 16-year-old population since 2023, and there are more entries from post-16 students this summer for GCSE English language and maths. The changes to the post-16 cohort are reflected in the GCSE English language and maths results published today. 

Overall GCSE results are similar to 2023. Outcomes at grade 7 and above are 21.7% compared with 21.6% in 2023, and outcomes at grade 4 and above are 67.4% compared with 67.8% in 2023. 

The results for GCSE French, German and computer science reflect the small adjustments we required exam boards to make this summer.

Today (22 August 2024) we are publishing: 

a summary of results (below) 

infographics about this year’s GCSE results  

interactive visualisations of outcomes by centre type, variability in school and college GCSE results, GCSE outcomes in England, an interactive map of England showing GCSE results in different subjects by grade and county and GCSE grade combinations 

results of the 2024 National Reference Test

As normal, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has  published results in England for GCSE , overall and by subject. These results are also shown in our  interactive visualisation .

Centre type results 

Ofqual has updated its interactive visualisation to show GCSE results for different types of school and college compared with previous years, overall and by subject. The centre type categories are based on the  national centre number (NCN) register  and are self-reported by schools and colleges. Our interactive visualisations only include those schools or colleges that have entries for a particular subject in every year from 2018 to 2024. 

Overall results for all types of school and college are broadly similar to 2023 at grade 7 and above and grade 4 and above. When students take exams, the same assessment arrangements apply to everyone. Differences in outcomes are therefore likely to reflect longstanding trends in the pattern of results for different centre types. Changes compared with 2023 will reflect changes in attainment or changes in the cohort of students taking qualifications across different types of centre. For example, more post-16 students took GCSEs this summer compared with 2023, and these students typically make up the majority of GCSE entries in further education establishments and colleges.

Cumulative percentage outcomes by centre type – grade 7 and above

Cumulative percentage outcomes by centre type – grade 4 and above

Centre variability 

Ofqual’s interactive visualisation shows the level of variation in schools’ and colleges’ GCSE results compared with 2023. We know that, in any year, individual schools and colleges may see variation in the proportion of students achieving particular grades compared with previous years. This can be due to many different factors, including differences in the mix of students entered for particular qualifications, different teaching approaches, changes in teaching staff or teaching time, and changes to qualifications.   

Our interactive visualisation allows users to explore variation in centres’ results for different age groups and sizes of centres.

GCSE French, German and computer science 

This summer we required exam boards to award GCSE French, German and computer science more generously .  

The positive adjustments in French and German follow our detailed review of an extensive evidence base as part of our work on inter-subject comparability, and subsequent announcement in 2019, that we would seek  to align grade standards in GCSE French and German with Spanish . Exam boards were required to make small positive adjustments in French at grades 7 and 4, and in German at grades 9, 7 and 4. This follows adjustments in both subjects at grades 9, 7 and 4 in summer 2023. The adjustments were taken into account during awarding and are reflected in results. We did not require exam boards to make a further adjustment at grade 9 in French this summer, as the evidence suggests that there was broad alignment with Spanish in summer 2023.

For GCSE computer science we conducted an extensive programme of research considering grading standards over time , given the changes that have been made to the qualification in the short time that it has been available (the first awards were in 2012). Our research suggests that standards may have become slightly more stringent through the period from 2014 to 2019, likely due to the changes to the qualification and the context during this period. We therefore required exam boards to award more generously this summer at grades 9, 7 and 4, to reflect the findings of the research. These small adjustments were taken into account during awarding and are reflected in results.

Equalities analyses 

As well as the results breakdowns published today, Ofqual will be repeating the equalities analyses that we have published since 2020 . Ofqual makes this information available so that the whole sector can understand qualification results and use this to inform policy making and practice. These detailed analyses consider whether the gaps between results for different groups of students have changed compared with previous years, while controlling for a range of student characteristics. It is important that these analyses control for as many student characteristics as possible, so that meaningful conclusions can be drawn from the results. This does mean, however, that it is not possible for us to complete these analyses ahead of results being issued, because final data from exams is only available very close to results days. We will publish our equalities analyses as soon as we can, in the autumn. 

When students take exams, the same assessment arrangements apply to everyone – students’ grades are solely determined by the number of marks they achieve in the assessments, and the same rules apply to everyone taking the same qualification. The gaps between results for different groups of students are therefore likely to reflect long-standing trends in attainment, and any changes this year will reflect changes in attainment. Differential patterns of achievement in qualifications reveal, rather than create, educational disparities. They are an important part of the evidence needed for addressing those disparities.

Grade boundaries 

Exam boards have set grade boundaries this summer based on a combination of data and qualitative evidence. As in any year, there has been an important role for examiner judgement. Expert examiners have reviewed the quality of students’ work compared with previous years.  

Grade boundaries typically change each exam series and are often different between exam boards. This reflects any differences in the difficulty of the assessments. If an exam paper is harder the grade boundaries will be lower, and if an exam paper is easier the grade boundaries will be higher. This is important to ensure that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged based on the exam paper that they sit. This means that some grade boundaries are lower than 2023, while others are higher. 

Grading has taken place as normal this summer and standards have been maintained from summer 2023. Students can therefore be confident in the grades they receive, irrespective of the grade boundaries or how they compare with last year.

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Digital SAT Suite of Assessments

SAT Practice and Preparation

From free practice tests to a checklist of what to bring on test day, College Board provides everything you need to prepare for the digital SAT.

Step 1: Now

Download and install the Bluebook app.

Step 2: Two Weeks Before Test Day

Take a full-length practice test in Bluebook.

Step 3: Five Days Before Test Day

Complete exam setup in Bluebook and get your admission ticket.

Step 4: On Test Day

Arrive on time (check your admission ticket).

Studying and Practice Tests

Practice tests.

Find full-length practice tests on Bluebook™ as well as downloadable linear SAT practice tests.

Khan Academy

Official Digital SAT Prep on Khan Academy ® is free, comprehensive, and available to all students.

Assistive Technology

Get information on how to practice for the digital SAT if you're using assistive technology.

My Practice

Take full-length digital SAT practice exams by first downloading Bluebook and completing practice tests. Then sign into My Practice to view practice test results and review practice exam items, answers, and explanations.

What to Bring and Do on Test Day

Find out everything you need to bring and do for the digital SAT.

SAT Student Guide

This guide provides helpful information for students taking the SAT during a weekend administration in Fall 2024.

SAT Practice Quick Start Guide

Learn how to use Bluebook and My Practice with this step-by-step guide.

Guía de inicio rápido de la práctica

Aprende cómo practicar para el SAT con esta guía de inicio rápido.

Why Should I Practice for the SAT?

This resource informs students about the benefits of practicing for the SAT and provides links to free practice resources.

¿Por qué debería practicar para el SAT?

Este folleto ofrece información sobre los beneficios de practicar para el SAT e incluye enlaces hacia recursos de práctica.

A Parent/Guardian's Guide to Official SAT Practice: Getting Your Teen Ready for the SAT

This resource provides parents and guardians with a schedule outline to help their child prepare for the SAT and includes links to free official practice materials.

A Parent/Guardian's Guide to Official SAT Practice: Getting Your Teen Ready for the SAT (Spanish)

Sat suite question bank: overview.