AVERAGE SAT SCORE

Average score is a great tool to determine many things. It helps you to judge your performance with respect to others and also to know the general behavior of students in the exam, the annual trend of results etc. It is a single figure that gives the overall view of the result. Also on a personal level, you can compare your performance in relation to a section by comparing the scores of different sections. It also helps you to know your chances of getting admission in colleges.

Averages refer to the central tendencies shown by a data. It is a statistical measure that determines the mean values. Average tells you a great deal about the data and the trend followed by it in general. One of its many uses is in the field of results and scores. SAT also lays importance on scores. Scores are given to students according to their performance in the exam. A good score can help you in getting admission in a college in US. So before taking the exam you tend to wonder what a good score is, how much is enough for the purpose of admission, and with what kind of score can you be sure of admission in a college. You need to know this in order to set your aims. You will work towards getting a good score only if you have an idea of the scores.

UNDERSTANDING THE SAT SCORE

You are scored on a scale of 200 to 800 in each of the sections of Reasoning Test and Subject-based tests. Apart from this you get a sub score in essay writing questions and multiple-choice questions. For essay writing you are scored between 2 and 12 and for multiple choice questions in writing section you get a sub score between 20 and 80. Subject test sub scores also range between 20 and 80.

The score that you get finally is not simply the addition of all the marks that you get for correct answers. This gives you a raw score. Once you get a raw score, your score is converted into the real scaled score between the range of 200 and 800. Taking into consideration all the three sections of the test your total score can be anything from 600 to 2400. This score makes it easier for colleges to compare every student on the same scale. An average score is about 500 in each section.

Each correct answer is given a point whereas 1/4th of a point is deducted from your scored points for a wrong answer. However, student-generated responses answered wrongly are not marked negatively. Also questions left un-attempted are not counted in the final score.

Along with the score you are given percentiles. This is a direct comparison of your score to the score of the other students who took the test. That means if you have scored 600 in the writing section and your percentile is 60, then you have scored more than 60% students who appeared in the test in the writing section. You are given percentiles for every section separately.

AVERAGE SAT SCORE

An average score is the middle value of scores. So, generally a score of about 500 in each section is considered as average. This will also give an average percentile to you. The percentile for the average score will be about 50. This will imply that you have scored more than about 50% of students who appeared in the test, while the rest 50% of students have done better than you.

A lot of things can be interpreted from the average score. Firstly, once you know the average score of the previous tests, you can get a rough idea of the scores obtained by students. Thus you can set your aims for the test while you are preparing for it. You should aim for a score that is above the average. With the help of this you will be able to set a high aim for yourself, which is not too much out of reach and is more than the average.

For the reasoning test, the average score is the most recent score of students of a particular batch. But for the subject based test, the average score varies for each subject. This is because all students do not appear for the same subjects. One student may appear for one subject whereas another may appear for a different subject. Thus the average score of different subjects is not comparable but scores can be compared to a previous batch of students who had appeared for the same subject.

Generally a score of 500 and above is considered good for the purpose of admission in a college. However each college has its own criterion of a good score. The colleges benefit from the average score as that gives them an idea of how well a student has performed. It will tell whether a student has got an average, above average or below average score. The percentile can give a further detail of how the student has fared as compared to other students.

When you reappear for the test, it does not mean that your score in the previous test is not counted. In fact, your score can include up to six previous scores.

IMPROVING YOUR AVERAGE SAT SCORE

As mentioned earlier an average score is a middle value. Thus it is the score of majority of the students. You know that an average score is good enough to get admission in a college. But there is a difference in getting admission in any college, and getting admission in the college of your choice. In order to get this preference, you will have to rise above the majority of students and prove yourself better than them. It is only then that the colleges will give you preference. The choice of college will be yours and not vice versa. Thus getting a score above average will set you apart and you will have control over the admission. That is why you must strive for excelling in the test and not be satisfied by just being there among the crowd.

For improving your score you must prepare for the test in advance. You should start preparing for it well in time and device a preparation plan. With a systematized study plan, you can aim at getting a high score.

In case you are not satisfied with your test score, you can reappear for the test and improve your score. There have been students who have managed to improve their score to a great extent after appearing for it the second or even the third time.