My son just got his December 2017 scores today. Reading = 750. Math= 710. Total = 1460. Essay = 18. The total score is in the 98th percentile for SAT takers. But all scores1450 and up are 98th or 99th percentile! Seems like the new SAT moved the curve all the way to the right. What good does this do? How is this helpful to colleges? 1460 would have been an excellent score a few years ago. Now I am not sure where this stands. Would love input from the experts here. Thanks.
Is your son a junior? We will know more about what a 1460 means in the spring after colleges release data of the new SATs. Last year’s data are up to interpretation and a lot of conflicting conclusions. My hunch for this year (but not proof) is that for the very competitive schools 1490 and up is a good score. But again, it will be more clear in the spring.
@am9799 Yes, he is a HS junior. Interesting. So everyone is flying blind. I have an older daughter who is a college junior. When she took SATs, a 1460 on CR/M 750/710 would be good enough to apply anywhere for a social science/humanities major. Now I don’t know what it means. My son is saying that he needs a 1530.
I think it is still a very good score. I do not think he needs 1530 but from what I have seen so far in EA this year 1490 seems to be a “desirable” (for luck of better words) score. I guess a 1460 places him in the 50% range of a lot of competitive schools but probably not the upper half? With the introduction of the August testing date he will have one last chance to test before senior year starts and by then all the new averages and ranges will be up. You have time to access.
@am9799 Thanks. He’s planning to take it again in March.
I think SAT data published by top schools for the class of 2021 (last year) can be misleading because many schools used the College Board’s faulty concordance tables to convert old SAT scores into new SAT scores. This conversion scaled up the old SAT scores relative to new, resulting in schools publishing SAT data for the class of 2021 that was artificially high. For the class of 2022, there won’t be any old SAT data to deal with…so those numbers should provide some better information when it is available. That assumes the information is available in time for you to make use of it.
My daughter took the SAT in March. 1490 and it said 99%. She felt like she failed the test but only one school need the SAT so we just left it as one test and done. I researched the score on line and got different reviews. I basically left it as it says 99% so the schools will know how it compares to others…I hope 
Just ignore the number and look at the percentile. The population taking the SAT has changed since the last time the test was revamped, plus the test has changed substantially, so it makes sense to re-center the scoring now. They want the mean to be close to 500 and they saw a benefit to creating more room to differentiate at the high end of the curve. A 1460 is still a good score. Just don’t compare it to a 1460 on the old SAT - look at the percentile. Best of luck.