How SAT scoring works

A correct answer is worth one point. A wrong answer is worth zero. An unanswered question is also worth zero.

Since a wrong answer and a blank are worth the same, a guess costs nothing and can only help. With four options, a blind guess is right one time in four, which over the fifteen questions a candidate might otherwise leave blank is close to four extra marks for no risk at all.

There is no situation on the SAT in which leaving a question unanswered is the better choice. If the clock is about to run out, filling in the remaining answers at random is strictly better than leaving them empty.

This is worth stating plainly because it is not true of every entrance test. CEnT-S, used for English-taught degrees in Italy, deducts a quarter of a mark for a wrong answer, and there a blind guess is worth exactly nothing. A candidate preparing for both has to keep the two rules apart.

Each subject produces a raw score, which is simply the number of questions answered correctly. Reading and Writing and Math are converted separately, each onto a scale of 200 to 800, and the two are added to give a total between 400 and 1600.

The conversion is not linear. Near the middle of the range, where most candidates sit, a single additional correct answer moves the score by around ten points. Near the top it moves it further, because the questions that distinguish the highest performances are fewer. This is why the last few marks are the hardest to gain and why a small slip at a high level costs more than it would in the middle.

College Board uses a different conversion table for every form of the test, and the tables are not published in a form that can be applied to an unofficial practice test. Any site that converts your practice score to a precise SAT number is estimating.

Performance on module 1 of each subject determines whether module 2 is drawn from an easier or a harder pool.

The consequence is that the two routes do not share a maximum. A candidate who receives the easier second module cannot reach the top of the 800 scale, because the questions in that module are not difficult enough to demonstrate the performance the top of the scale represents. Answering every question correctly in an easier module produces a good score, not a perfect one.

The practical implication is that module 1 carries weight beyond its share of the questions. It decides not only twenty-seven marks but which twenty-seven marks are available afterward.

A raw score out of the questions you attempted is a reliable measure of what you know. Converted into a number out of 1600, it becomes an estimate, because the conversion depends on a table specific to a form you did not sit.

The useful way to read a practice score is as a comparison against your own previous attempts, and as a breakdown by section and topic. A score that rises across three practice tests means something. A single estimate of 1340 does not mean you will score 1340.