<p>By “English” I am assuming you mean the writing section of the SAT. A writing score of 490 is about average as is a reading score of 510 while 620 in math is well above average. </p>
<p>How much colleges use the writing score in admissions decisions is not well known at this time in my opinion. I know that the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system do not use them at all and only use the total of your CR and M scores in its admission process. I have also heard that other colleges and universities give it little or no weight when evaluating applicants. While there is data that shows a relationship of how well students who get certain CR and M scores do in their college courses with a positive correlation between CR and M scores on the SAT and college GPAs, the writing test is new and it is largely unknown whether it has any value as a predictor of what kind of grades students will get in college. Until there is data showing a correlation between SAT writing scores and college performance it will not be seen as important as CR and M scores by most colleges.</p>