SAT score calculator

What is an SAT score calculator?

An SAT score calculator turns the number of questions you answered correctly — your raw score — into the scaled scores that colleges actually see. On the SAT you never report raw scores: each section is converted onto a 200–800 scale, and the two section scores add up to a total between 400 and 1600.

The conversion is not a simple percentage. It is an equating curve, published by the College Board as a lookup table, that compensates for small differences in difficulty between test forms. A slightly harder form is more forgiving, so the same raw score can be worth a few more scaled points on one test than on another.

Which SAT and which conversion curve?

This calculator encodes one specific published curve: Raw Score Conversion Table 1 from the College Board’s official Scoring Your SAT Practice Test #1 guide. That table belongs to the paper-and-pencil SAT used from 2016 to 2023, which is structured as:

• Reading Test — 52 questions, converted to a Reading Test Score of 10–40.
• Writing and Language Test — 44 questions, converted to a Writing Test Score of 10–40.
• Math Test (No-Calculator plus Calculator) — 58 questions, converted directly to a Math Section Score of 200–800.

Two honest caveats, because they change how you should read the result:

• Scaled scores vary by test form. Every SAT administration has its own equated conversion table. This calculator applies the Practice Test #1 curve to whatever raw scores you enter, so for any other form the output is an estimate, typically within a few tens of points rather than exact.
• The current digital SAT is adaptive. It uses two stages per section, and the score depends on which second-stage module you were routed into. The College Board publishes no raw-to-scaled table for it, so no calculator can convert a digital raw score exactly. Rather than invent a digital curve, this tool uses the real, published paper curve — which is still what most SAT scoring questions and practice books refer to.

How does the calculator work?

Enter three raw scores — simply the number of questions you answered correctly, with no penalty for wrong answers on the modern SAT:

1. Your Reading Test raw score (0–52).
2. Your Writing and Language Test raw score (0–44).
3. Your Math Test raw score (0–58), which is your No-Calculator and Calculator correct answers added together.

Each raw score is looked up in the conversion table. Reading and Writing become test scores from 10 to 40; those two are added and multiplied by 10 to give the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) section score. Math converts straight to its section score. A raw score outside a table’s range is clamped to that table’s lowest or highest entry, so the result always stays within the official bounds.

Formulas

Let $R$ be the Reading Test Score, $W$ the Writing Test Score (each 10–40 after the table lookup), and $M$ the Math Section Score (200–800 after the table lookup).

$\text{EBRW} = (R + W) \times 10$

$\text{Total} = \text{EBRW} + M$

Because $R$ and $W$ each bottom out at 10 and top out at 40, the EBRW section score is always between 200 and 800 — the same range as Math — and the total therefore always falls between 400 and 1600.

Worked example

A student takes SAT Practice Test #1 and answers correctly:

• 43 of 52 Reading questions,
• 38 of 44 Writing and Language questions,
• 45 of 58 Math questions.

Reading the conversion table, a Reading raw score of 43 becomes a test score of 35, and a Writing raw score of 38 becomes a test score of 34:

$\text{EBRW} = (35 + 34) \times 10 = 690$

A Math raw score of 45 converts directly to a Math Section Score of 660, so the total is:

$\text{Total} = 690 + 660 = 1350$

The student’s estimated score is 690 EBRW + 660 Math = 1350.

Conversion table excerpt

A few rows from the encoded curve. A dash means the raw score is beyond that test’s question count — Writing has only 44 questions and Reading only 52, so neither has an entry at the higher raw scores that Math does.

Notice how uneven the curve is: near the top of the Math table one extra correct answer can be worth 20 points (raw 51 to 52 moves 710 to 730), while in the middle several raw scores are worth only 10 points each — and raw 23 and 24 both convert to 480.

Practical notes

• Count only correct answers. The SAT has had no wrong-answer penalty since 2016, so blanks and wrong answers are worth the same: leave nothing unanswered.
• A perfect raw score is not always needed for a perfect section. On many forms the top one or two raw scores all map to 800, but that cushion differs by form — do not count on it.
• Use it to set targets, not to predict an official report. Because each form has its own curve, treat the output as a planning estimate. If you are scoring practice tests, score each one against its own official conversion table for exact numbers.
• Section scores, not test scores, are what get reported. Colleges see EBRW (200–800), Math (200–800) and the 400–1600 total; the 10–40 Reading and Writing test scores are intermediate values.
• If you are converting classroom results rather than standardised tests, the test grade calculator turns correct answers into a percentage and a letter grade, and the GPA calculator averages course grades into a grade point average.