SAT Percentile Chart

Two official reference groups

A percentile is the share of the reference group scoring at or below your score. College Board’s user group covers SAT takers from the past three graduating classes. Its nationally representative group models all U.S. 11th- and 12th-grade students, including students who do not take the SAT.

The values below are copied from the published table checked October 5, 2026. They are not country-specific rankings or a forecast of your admission chances.

What SAT score is the 90th, 95th or 99th percentile?

Each row gives the lowest total whose published rank is at least that percentile. College Board rounds percentiles to whole numbers, so several neighboring totals can share a rank; the lowest one is the entry point.

Why 1400 can be described as 93rd or 97th

Both values appear in the official table, but they refer to different groups. Write “93rd user-group percentile” when comparing with SAT takers. Write “97th nationally representative percentile” for the modeled U.S. grade-level population. A bare percentile can hide this difference.

If a guide calls 1500 the 98th percentile, check its source and year. The table used here lists 1500 at 97 for the user group and 99 for the nationally representative group.

Percentile is not percent correct

A 98th percentile rank means about 98% of the reference group scored at or below that score. It does not mean 98% of your answers were right. On the current user table, 1520 has rank 98; that row does not tell you a miss budget.

The 99+ notation at 1600 is a rounded reporting category. It does not mean exactly 1% of students earn a perfect score, or that a perfect score is the 100th percentile.

International and younger students

This national table cannot tell you the percentile of a 1400 in China, India or the UK. Use your score report’s named country or comparison group if it provides one. Do not invent a local rank by adjusting a U.S. percentile.

A sixth or eighth grader’s 1300 still maps to the published SAT table’s 85th user-group percentile. That is a comparison with the SAT reference group, not with other sixth or eighth graders.

Use rank for context and the section scores for action

A 1370 and a 1500 occupy different ranks, but rank alone does not say which skills changed. Compare your Reading and Writing and Math scores, then review the questions you missed or guessed. For a college decision, use that college’s score range rather than the national table.