SAT ACT Concordance

Understanding how your score from one test compares to another is one of the most common questions we get. Many colleges publish the average test score of incoming freshmen in only one data set, either SAT or ACT.

If a student takes both tests, they should identify which one is higher and send that one to the college they are applying to.

Fortunately, the SAT and ACT have done the comparison work and they created what is called a Concordance Table, which is shared to all colleges for their use. We found this information hidden well within their documents and we have prepared the comparison table to help you find where you stand.

Since the SAT has 120 possible scores (400-1600 in multiples of 10) and the ACT has only 36 possible scores (1-36), when converting from the ACT to SAT, use the second column (SAT), whereas if you are converting from SAT to ACT, find your score in the range of the third column (SAT Range) to read column 1 (ACT).

If you are comparing only one section of the SAT (Range 200-800) to its corresponding ACT score, say the Math section, multiply it by 2 to get the equivalent SAT score and then read the corresponding ACT score. For instance, if you received 550 in Math of the SAT, you would multiply it by 2 to get 1,100 and the corresponding Math score on the ACT would be 22.

Similarly, if you want to convert one section of the ACT, read the corresponding median SAT (Second column) and then divide this by 2. If your English and Reading score on the ACT was a 32, the SAT is 1430, your equivalent English score is 715.

Do you have questions on this? Contact us and we will be happy to help sort this out.