SAT Scoring Basics

Understand how students earn points, how to interpret score reports, and ways students can use their scores after the test.

No Penalty for Guessing

On the SAT, students earn points for all questions answered correctly. Encourage your students to give their best answer to every question. Let them know there's no advantage to leaving questions blank.

Interpret Score Reports

Students get an online score report that helps them look beyond the numbers, see how they stack up, figure out where they can improve, and get a free personalized study plan with Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy®. If your students took the SAT with Essay, they’ll also find a scanned copy of their response.

How Students Can Send Scores

Students can choose which day's test scores to send to colleges. They can send a single day's scores or scores of every SAT they've ever taken.

However, they can't send partial scores from different days. For instance, they can’t send a Math score from one test day and an Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score from another.

Note: Make sure your students check the score-send policies of every college they're applying to, because some schools require them to send every score.

Resources