@StuckInThought - Move on! No one will care about your 32. Top schools recognize that “brain power” is only a small part of the picture. Most of them are looking for people who will be successful in life and they are looking for signs that you have the sort of personality that will stand out from the crowd. Once you’ve passed the “brain power” threshold (and you have) they move on to look at the rest of your application.
Yes I am definitely preparing for the June SAT, purposely did not study for this one to use it as a baseline 
^“Purposely did not study for this one?”
Why?
You could’ve easily taken a test under test simulated conditions at any number of test prep companies that offer free diagnostics to create a baseline. By officially taking the SAT, that score is permanent record.
Fortunately many schools only care about your highest scores, but a few do want to see all your scores, including your low scores and “baselines”.
So is 1550 a good score ?, since it corresponds to 34, is it worth to retake to get 1560 or more ? since I got 35 in ACT
I got a 1360 - 710 reading 650 math
Wondering if this is good enough for NCSU Engineering… I’ll probably retake in an effort to offset my 3.3 UW GPA.
@ivysource My son got 1490 (720 RW; 770 M). His report says 99% National, 98% User.
He only got a 16 on the essay. 5 Reading, 5 Analysis, and 6 Writing. I don’t see any percentiles for the essay.
Why don’t the concordance tables work the same in either direction? When I convert my new SAT scores (1520 total score) to the old SAT scores it comes out to a 2210, but when I then plug the estimated old SAT scores back into the SAT score converter, my new SAT score changes from a 1520 (actual) to a 1500 (estimated). The estimated section scores are the same as my actual section scores, however (740/780). My estimated equivalent ACT scores also fluctuate between a 34 and a 33 composite score, depending on which way I am converting my scores. Clearly the concordance tables could use some tweaking!
@Mimic17 - First of all, define your terms. For plenty of people a 1200 or 1300 would be a “good score.” By most of the world’s standards a 1550 is an incredible, almost unheard of score. My guess is that you could go to about half of all high schools in America and not find a single student who got a 1550 or a 34 on the ACT. I know there wasn’t one in my high school growing up.
1550 will fall solidly within the top 1% of students. Technically your 35 on the ACT might be slightly higher, but you have to also recognize that 1550 is the highest of scores from 1520-1550 that correspond to an ACT of 34. The SAT is a more finely measured exam than the ACT. So your ACT 35 and your SAT 1550 sit right next to each other and are within the top 1% of all scorers. I would send both scores to schools because the SAT score helps to validate your ACT score. I don’t think there is any school out there who would look at you any differently if you submitted a 1580 rather than a 1550. My son had a “high” 35 on the ACT (one subsection point away from a 36). He wanted to retake it but ended up not doing it because I convinced him that it made a lot more sense to spend the time studying for AP exams rather than studying to get that one more ACT point. And by the way, he got a 1550 on the March SAT as well.
Yes @aaronuhs , my mistake–the essay is scored out of 6 points but it’s scored from 2-8 (two different readers who score it from 1-4) instead of 0-6.
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores/essay
There probably isn’t enough information on the essay scores yet to provide a true percentile.
Folks, please be wary of misinformation presented on this thread.
@MatzoBall could you be more specific? We’re all here to learn. Being vague about it isn’t helping anybody.
@mamma1st that’s a great score! I’m sure he’s disappointed that he just missed 1500, but that’s excellent for the first time taking the SAT. He should probably just quit while he’s ahead and start focusing on the other aspects of his college application.
Two decades ago, a certain someone got a 1480/1600 on his first SAT in March (relieved to have done well, but ultimately disappointed because he scored a 1540/1600 on the PSAT). He was tempted to re-take the SAT to try for a 1500+, but didn’t, because he knew that all colleges could see all his scores (no longer the case, but still true for some schools like Stanford and UPenn). He stuck with the 1480, and got into Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth and Williams, and now he teaches kids how to take the SAT and ACT for a living.
By the way, I wouldn’t worry too much about the low essay scores. It’s a brand-new test and the format of the SAT essay has been drastically changed. For what it’s worth, low essay scores relative to other scores has been a huge problem on the new ACT as well: https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Research-Letter-about-ACT-Writing.pdf
My ds18 got a 1490 too. We were expecting higher because he scored higher on the PSAT. He did well on the essay 7/8/8. His biggest problem was the reading section where he missed 7. He normally scores better than this on tests. He’ll be retaking the SAT in October as prep for the PSAT.
These concordance tables from the College Board should be helpful for those of you who are trying to make sense of your scores: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/educators/higher-ed/scoring-changes/concordance
@3scoutsmom consider yourself lucky for him to have done so well on the essay! That will help for superscore schools, just in case he re-takes the test and the essay score goes down. I wouldn’t say that he has to re-take it with a 1490, but if you would classify it as an under-performance, then in most cases there is no harm in taking it again. This is especially true at the moment, since the vast majority of colleges will now either accept your superscore (best score from each section regardless of test date), or your best score in one sitting.
Attached is a list of all 4-year colleges in America, and their SAT score acceptance policies: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/professionals/sat-score-use-practices-participating-institutions.pdf
@ivysource My son hasn’t decided if he’ll take the SAT in October or just be done. He is happy with a 1490 but of course wishes he had gotten 1500.
He has a 33 ACT (31E, 36M, 33R, 30S) and 30 writing.
Of the two tests, he thinks there’s more room for improvement in the SAT.
According to the concordance tables his 1490 equates to a 33 ACT so he’s pretty consistent.
@candjsdad Just found out an interesting fact about the ACT. Just like the SAT, the ACT scoring was recentered. The SAT was recentered in 1995. The ACT was recentered in 1989. This made composite ACT scores after this time about two points higher than they were before.
Guys, if you have a 35 on the ACT, ** forget about the SAT**. You should not have even taken it. A 35 on the ACT is as good as having a 36… for EVERY college.