SAT score standard deviation

In 2019, the College Board released the SAT data. The SAT standard deviation that year was 210. You can calculate your SAT scaled score using this calculator.

​The mean for that same year was 1056. If we apply the standard deviation to the mean, we get that students scoring above 1261 (the mean plus the standard deviation) were the students who got an excellent score.​

​Why is it essential the standard deviation in the SAT? The SAT doesn't have a passing score. It has, however, benchmarks. That means that you are competing against other students' scores. The mean and the standard deviation is going to help you to understand how high your score is.

Look at the standard deviation in the SAT

Why is the standard deviation important?

The standard deviation can give you key information.

Working with the data released in 2019 but The College Board, the mean of the SAT was 1056, if we add the standard deviation we obtain 1261, which helps you to know what are outstanding students.

Less than 19% of students scored above that number.

On the lower level, we shouldn't use the standard deviation, since The College Board sets benchmarks.

​The benchmarks were 480 for reading and writing, and 530 for math. We want to be away from any score below these benchmarks.

The SAT exam score and the standard deviation have always been at the heart of discussions about its validity. At the start of the academic year, students are polled about whether they believe it is essential or not that they get a degree or vice versa.

The score on the math section of the SAT is listed as a standardized test. This section is called the math section because the test is given on a math-based SAT (SAT Advanced). This section is available on several different occasions in different cities, so the test has a different distribution.