The SAT is not curved against other test takers. It is equated — your raw score is converted using a scale specific to your test form to account for difficulty differences across dates.
A curve grades you relative to the people who took the test the same day. Equating adjusts your raw score based on the difficulty of the specific test form you took.
Equating means that if your form was slightly harder than average, your raw-to-scaled conversion is a little more generous — and vice versa.
You are not competing against the other students in your room. You are competing against a fixed ability standard. This is why SAT scores are comparable across test dates, years, and schools.
Do not leave this answer as background knowledge. Connect it to a practice decision: what to drill, when to test, how to pace a module, or how to interpret a score report.
Each SAT section is scored on a 200–800 scale. Your raw score (number of correct answers) is converted into a scaled score via equating, and the two section scores add to your 1600 total.
A perfect SAT score is 1600 — the maximum possible. That is 800 on Reading & Writing plus 800 on Math.
Drill free SAT questions by skill, take timed modules, and project your 1600-scale score.