How is the SAT scored?

Official score reports are provided about five weeks after the test is administered. Score is calculated in two steps:

 A raw score is calculated. 

 First raw score is calculated which consist of the following:

• One point is added for each multiple-choice question which is answered correctly.
• For multiple-choice questions answered incorrectly, 1/4 point is subtracted:
• No points are subtracted for incorrect answers to the mathematics questions requiring student-produced responses.
• No points are subtracted for omitted questions.
• After giving individual points, the total points answered wrong are subtracted from the number answered correctly. If the resulting score is a fraction, it is rounded to the nearest whole number—1/2 or more is rounded up; less than 1/2 is rounded down.
• Questions in the SAT equating section do not count toward the score.

The raw score is converted to the College Board 200- to 800-point scaled score by a statistical process called equating.

Equating adjusts for slight differences in difficulty between test editions, and ensures that a student's score of, say, 450 on one edition of a test reflects the same ability as a score of 450 on another edition of the test.

Equating also ensures that a student's score does not depend on how well others did on the same edition of the test.

The SAT Score report includes:

• A breakdown of the student's scores, including the types of questions, level of difficulty, and how many in each group of questions the student answered correctly, answered incorrectly, or omitted
• Information about what those scores mean, with enhanced percentile information to help better compare the student’s performance with other groups of test-takers

Official score reports are provided about five weeks after the test is administered. They are sent to the student's high school, if the student entered the correct high school code number when registering.