These schools are hard for you to get into now, because they have average SAT scores that are higher than a 900. But if you improve your SAT score, you’ll have a much better shot. These schools have average SAT scores that are close to a 900.
By contrast, anything lower than a 1070 is a below-average score. For example, a 950, which is in the 31st percentile, places you in the bottom third of test takers. And a 900, which is in the 23rd percentile, places you in the bottom fourth.
SUMMARY OF AVERAGE, GOOD, AND EXCELLENT SAT SCORES 1 Poor: 900 or lower (bottom 25% of test-takers) 2 Average: 1060 (exactly in the middle!) 3 Good: 1200 (top 75% of test-takers) 4 Excellent: 1350+ (90%+ higher than all test-takers)
But if you improve your SAT score, you’ll have a much better shot. These schools have average SAT scores that are close to a 910. If you apply to these schools, you’ll have a decent chance of admission. If you improve your SAT score by 200 points, you’ll significantly improve your chances and get almost guaranteed admission for most schools.
What is the SAT score?
The SAT score range is 400-1600 for your total score, and 200-800 for each of your two section scores. One section score is Math, while the other is a combined Reading and Writing score called Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW).
That said, keep in mind that if you really want a better SAT score, you’ll need to invest a lot of time into prep and really work on shoring up your weaknesses. These are the estimated time estimates for different total score improvements (not per section) on the SAT: 1 0-30 point improvement: 10 hours 2 30-70 point improvement: 20 hours 3 70-130 point improvement: 40 hours 4 130-200 point improvement: 80 hours 5 200-330 point improvement: 150 hours +
To determine your target SAT goal score, look at the 75th percentile column. Find the highest SAT score in that column; that’ll be your SAT score goal. By scoring at the 75th percentile level for the most competitive school on your list, you’ll be competitive at all the schools you’re applying to.
For the University of Alabama, you’ll find that the 25th percentile SAT score is 1060; this means that 25% of admitted students have a score of 1060 on the SAT.
SAT scores follow a normal distribution. This means that student performance tends to cluster around the middle of the scale (1000 is the halfway point between the minimum score of 400 and the maximum score of 1600 ). Far fewer test takers score toward the higher and lower ends of the scale.
A score of 1040 (just below the 1050 average) is solid for less selective colleges such as Indiana University Northwest (average SAT score: 1000) and CSU Stanislaus (average: 980). To sum up, a good SAT score is a score that makes you competitive for …
A 1400 is in the 94th percentile, the top 6% of all test takers. And any score 1500+ puts you in the coveted top 1-2%! By contrast, anything lower than a 1050 is a below-average score. For example, a 950, which is in the 33rd percentile, places you in the bottom third of test takers.
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