Historical SAT Percentiles: New SAT 2016-2022

If you took the new SAT in between 2016 and 2022, you might be wondering what percentile your score is in. Is a 700 on Math in 2016 the same as a 700 in Math in 2022? How much do percentile scores change from year to year?

In this article, I’ll explain what new SAT percentile scores are and how they’ve changed over time. I’ll also provide percentiles for SAT combined and section scores for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

What Are SAT Percentile Scores?

Your SAT percentile score tells you how well you did compared to other students who took the SAT. If you scored in the 97th percentile, then you scored higher than 97% of the people who took the test. If you scored in the 50th percentile, you did better than 50% of the people who took the test.

Every year, the College Board determines that year’s SAT percentile scores based on how college-bound high school seniors that year scored on the SAT. The higher the percentile your SAT score is in, the better you scored compared to other high school seniors.

Special Note: Nationally Representative Sample Percentiles vs. SAT User Percentiles

On your score report, you’ll see information about two different kinds of percentiles: Nationally Representative Sample Percentiles and SAT User Percentiles. For this article, when we talk about percentiles we’ll be exclusively referring to SAT User Percentiles, which are based on only actual SAT scores of students in the classes of 2016-2022 who took the new SAT. Read this article to find out more about the differences between the two percentile types on your SAT score report.

Do Percentile Scores Change?

In the past, SAT scores stayed pretty much at the same percentile, year over year. For instance, on the old SAT, a score of 1880 was in the 87th percentile for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

That SAT percentile scores haven’t changed much over time is intentional—the whole idea behind the SAT scoring system is that colleges can know that a student who got a 1880 SAT score in 2010 performed about the same as a student who got a 1880 SAT score in 2006 or 2015. If an 1880 was in the 80th percentile in 2010 and the 95th percentile in 2015, the scores would be meaningless for comparison purposes on their own.

Because the SAT in its current format has only been administered for a few years, however, new SAT scores aren’t quite as tied to specific percentiles. As an example, a 1230 new SAT score was in the 77th percentile in 2016, 80th percentile in 2017, 79th percentile in 2018, and 78th percentile in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

The biggest changes in percentiles on the new SAT happened for students who scored between 860 and 1200, with the same score differing by as many as 10 percentile points between 2016 and 2023 (for instance, a 950 was in the 35th percentile in 2016 and 34th percentile in 2022).

As the new SAT is administered to more students over more years, these differences will no doubt shrink, making it easier to compare the same scores. For now, though, if you’re scoring in the 860-1200 range, you can expect the percentile of your score to shift by up to 10 percentile points compared to past years.

How Should You Use This Info and Why Does It Matter?

Because the same SAT scores have had such varying percentiles in the last couple of years, your percentile score is the easiest way to figure out how well you did on the SAT. If you scored higher than 50 percent of test-takers, then you’re above average; if you scored higher than 75 percent of test-takers, then you did very well indeed.

When you apply to college, however, you’re not being compared to all students who took the SAT, but to all students who took the SAT and are applying to that school. To help students figure out how they stack up against past successful applicants, colleges usually publicly post 25th and 75th percentile scores of admitted students. If you want to be a competitive candidate for a school, your target SAT score should be around or above a school’s 75th percentile score.

On a section level, percentiles can help you put your scores in context. It might seem like you’re doing about equally well on Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math if you get a 690 on ERW and a 640 on Math. However, a 690 ERW score is in the 92nd percentile, while a 640 Math score is in the 83rd percentile. Raising each section score by 100 points would raise your Math percentile ranking by 11 points and your ERW percentile ranking by only seven points. If you’re thinking about retaking the SAT and trying to figure out where you should focus your studying efforts, your percentile scores can help identify how you can improve the most.

Finally, percentile scores also tell us that a small increase in your composite score can have a large impact on your percentile score, particularly if you’re scoring around or even a little below the middle of the pack. For instance, in 2022 an SAT score of 1050 was at the 51st percentile, but a score of 1210 was at the 76th. Increasing your score by just 160 points can take your score from average to the top quarter of all SAT scores.

Composite Score Percentiles, 2016-2022

Sources: SAT Understanding Scores 2016, SAT Understanding Scores 2017, SAT Understanding Scores 2018, SAT Understanding Scores 2019, SAT Understanding Scores 2020. SAT Understanding Scores 2021, SAT Understanding Scores 2022

Section Score Percentiles

Evidence-Based Reading and Writing

Sources: SAT Understanding Scores 2016, SAT Understanding Scores 2017, SAT Understanding Scores 2018, SAT Understanding Scores 2019, SAT Understanding Scores 2020. SAT Underestanding Scores 2021, SAT Understanding Score 2022

Math

Sources: SAT Understanding Scores 2016, SAT Understanding Scores 2017, SAT Understanding Scores 2018, SAT Understanding Scores 2019, SAT Understanding Scores 2020. SAT Understanding Scores 2021, SAT Understanding Scores 2022

What’s Next?

How do you compare to other students in your state? Find out with our regularly updated list of average SAT scores by state.

Where does your SAT essay score fit into all this? Learn more about SAT essay scoring and what the average SAT essay score is here.

Would you be able to score in a higher percentile on the ACT? We help you figure out if the ACT or SAT is a better test for you with this foolproof method.