How is the SAT scored?
The SAT is scored from 400 to 1600. You get a Reading and Writing score from 200 to 800 and a Math score from 200 to 800, and your total is the sum of the two. The score is not a simple count of correct answers: it depends on which questions you got right, including how hard they were. Guessing beats leaving a question blank.
Each section has two modules, and the test adapts between them. The first module mixes easier and harder questions. How you do on it decides whether your second module is the harder or the easier set. Your section score is based on all the questions in both modules, and College Board says a range of scores is possible whichever second module you get.
Not every question counts. Each module includes two pretest questions that do not affect your score. With four modules, that is 8 of the 98 questions, so 90 are scored: 50 in Reading and Writing and 40 in Math.
College Board scores the test with Item Response Theory, so two students with the same number of correct answers can get different section scores, depending on which questions they answered right. That is why online score calculators can only estimate. For context, the class of 2025 averaged 1029: 521 in Reading and Writing and 508 in Math.
| Score | Range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Total score | 400 to 1600 | Sum of the two section scores |
| Reading and Writing | 200 to 800 | 54 questions, 50 scored |
| Math | 200 to 800 | 44 questions, 40 scored |
| Class of 2025 average | 1029 | 521 Reading and Writing, 508 Math |
- 1You answer the first Reading and Writing module, a mix of easier and harder questions.
- 2Your results on it decide whether the second module is the harder or the easier set.
- 3Math works the same way: a first module, then a second module matched to how you did.
- 4The two pretest questions in each module are set aside and do not count.
- 5College Board scores your answers using which questions you got right and how hard they were, and turns that into a 200 to 800 score per section.
- 6The two section scores are added up for your total from 400 to 1600.