SAT to ACT Score Converter

How SAT-ACT concordance actually works under the hood

Quick reality check. The SAT and the ACT aren't the same test, they don't measure the exact same skills, and the scales are built from totally different math. So when you see a converter that says a 1350 SAT "equals" a 30 ACT, that number isn't pulled from a hat. It's pulled from a giant statistical project that the College Board and ACT, Inc. ran together back in 2018.

Here's the short version. Both organizations gathered scores from a huge sample of students who'd taken both exams within a reasonable window. They lined up the score distributions, found the points where percentile ranks matched, and built a lookup table from that. That's it. The converter on this page is reading from that exact same table, just in a friendlier interface.

A concordance isn't a translation. It's more like an exchange rate. If you scored in the 92nd percentile of SAT takers, what ACT score puts a student in roughly the 92nd percentile of ACT takers? That's the question the table answers. Not "what would you have scored on the other test", because nobody knows that. Closer to: where does your score sit in the national pecking order, and what number on the other test sits in roughly the same spot?

Why the 2018 concordance still applies in 2026

People email us about this constantly. The SAT went digital in 2024. The ACT is rolling out shorter, more flexible formats. So how can a conversion table from 2018 still be the official one in 2026?

Two reasons. First, both tests are vertically scaled to stay consistent across versions. The whole point of the SAT scoring system is that a 1400 in 2019 means roughly the same thing as a 1400 in 2026, even after the format change. Same goes for the ACT's 1-36 scale. Second, neither testing organization has released a new joint concordance study since 2018. Colleges know this. Admissions officers know this. They keep using the same table because it's the only officially sanctioned one in existence.

Are there fringe arguments that the digital SAT might shift the curve slightly? Sure. Some test-prep companies have floated their own "updated" tables. Ignore them. Admissions offices use the official one, and so should you when you're deciding which score to send.

The full official concordance table, grouped by ACT

Here's the full 2018 concordance, grouped by ACT composite with the SAT range that maps to it. This is the same table admissions officers reference internally.

A note on ranges. A single ACT score covers a band of SAT scores. A 30 ACT corresponds to an SAT range, not a single number. That's because the SAT has 121 possible composite scores (400 to 1600, in 10-point steps) and the ACT only has 36. You're mapping a fine scale onto a coarse one. Some compression is inevitable.

The score equivalents everyone Googles

If you don't want to read the whole table, here are the conversions students ask about most. Memorize these as anchors and you can eyeball the rest.

• 1600 SAT = 36 ACT. Perfect to perfect. No surprise.
• 1500 SAT = 34 ACT. This is the Ivy/top-20 threshold zone.
• 1400 SAT = 31 ACT. Strong score. Competitive at most top-50 schools.
• 1300 SAT = 27 ACT. Solid. Above the national average by a wide margin.
• 1200 SAT = 25 ACT. Roughly the 75th percentile nationally.
• 1100 SAT = 22 ACT. Close to the national median.
• 1000 SAT = 19 ACT. Below the median, but workable for many state schools.

Notice the spacing. Going from 1000 to 1100 is a 3-point ACT bump. Going from 1500 to 1600 is only 2 points. The scale gets tighter at the top, which is exactly what you'd expect. There are way more students clustered in the middle than at the extremes, so each additional ACT point covers a smaller SAT band up there.

Should you submit your SAT or your ACT to colleges?

If you've taken both, send the one with the higher concordance percentile. Period. Don't overthink it. Admissions officers run your score through the same converter you just used. They'll see equivalent scores as equivalent. A 1450 SAT and a 33 ACT land in the same bucket on their end.

The one caveat: if your scores are basically tied, send whichever test you scored better on in the section that matches your intended major. Applying as a computer science major with a 750 SAT Math but only a 28 ACT Math? Send the SAT. Applying to a journalism program with a 35 ACT English but a middling 680 SAT Reading and Writing? Send the ACT. Section scores matter, especially at engineering programs that look at math subscores in isolation.

What about superscoring across the SAT and ACT?

Bad news here. You can't superscore across tests. If a college superscores the SAT, they'll combine your best Math from one sitting with your best Reading and Writing from another, but only within the SAT. Same logic on the ACT side. They won't take your best SAT Math and combine it with your best ACT English to build a Franken-score.

Why? Because the section scales aren't directly interchangeable at the subsection level the way the composites are. The concordance table is built for total scores, not for blending pieces from different tests. If you're shopping for the best possible application package, pick one test, take it twice or three times, and let the superscore policy do its thing.

Hot take: most students who try to be "flexible" and prep for both end up mediocre at both. Pick a lane. Drill it.

Are the ACT and SAT actually equivalent in admissions?

Yes. Officially, every US college that accepts standardized test scores accepts both. There is no school in 2026 that secretly prefers one over the other, no matter what your uncle who applied to Yale in 1987 tells you.

That said, regional patterns are real. The ACT historically dominated in the Midwest and the South. The SAT had a coastal monopoly for decades. Those splits have softened, but if you're from Iowa and your guidance counselor seems weirdly ACT-focused, that's why. It's habit, not policy. Submit whichever score makes you look best.

Test-optional policies and what they mean now

The test-optional landscape has whiplashed since 2020. Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, MIT, Caltech, Georgetown, and most of the Ivy-adjacent schools have all reinstated testing requirements as of the 2025-2026 cycle. The University of California system is still test-blind. The rest of the country is a mix.

Practical advice. If your concorded score lands at or above the 25th percentile of admitted students at your target school, submit it. If it falls below the 25th percentile, think carefully. Some students who are below the 25th still submit and get in, because the rest of their application is exceptional. But statistically, a below-25th-percentile score lowers your odds at test-optional schools where strong scores are common in the admitted pool.

Use the converter to figure out which version of your score puts you above that 25th-percentile line for the most schools. Sometimes the SAT-to-ACT conversion pushes you over a threshold you wouldn't have crossed otherwise.

STEM-heavy applicants: SAT or ACT?

If you're applying to engineering, CS, applied math, physics, or any program that weights quantitative skills heavily, lean SAT. Here's why.

The SAT Math section is worth half your composite score (800 out of 1600). The ACT Math section is one-fourth of your composite (one of four tests averaged together). If you're a strong math student, the SAT gives that strength more weight in your final number. A 780 Math plus 700 RW on the SAT (1480) reads as a strong math kid. A 34 ACT with a 34 Math, 34 English, 34 Reading, 34 Science also reads as a strong math kid, but the signal is more diluted.

Engineering admissions readers, especially at places like MIT, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech, look at the Math subscore line by line. A 790 SAT Math is a louder data point than a 35 ACT Math, even though they concord to roughly the same place. Sad but true.

Counterpoint. The ACT Math has more geometry and trig, and the questions are more procedural. If your weakness is the SAT's tricky multi-step word problems, the ACT might play to your strengths. Take a full-length practice of each before you commit.

Humanities applicants: a different calculation

If you're aiming at English, history, comp lit, political science, or anything where reading and writing dominate, the ACT can actually be friendlier. The ACT splits English and Reading into separate tests, so a student who's strong in both gets two high subscores that admissions readers can point to.

The SAT smashes reading and writing into a single 800-point section called Reading and Writing. You lose that granularity. A 770 SAT RW looks great, but it doesn't separate the "great writer who's okay at grammar" from the "grammar wizard who reads slowly." The ACT does.

Pacing matters too. The ACT Reading section is brutal on time (35 minutes for 40 questions across four passages). The digital SAT gives you more time per question and shorter passages. If you read fast and skim well, ACT. If you're a deeper, slower reader, SAT.

Haven't taken either test yet? Here's how to choose

Take a timed, full-length, official practice test of each. Just one of each. Same conditions, same week, no prep in between. Score them both. Convert them with this tool. Whichever one gave you the higher concorded score is your test.

That's the whole decision tree. Not vibes, not what your friend took, not which test "feels easier." The numbers tell you. About 60% of students score roughly equivalently on both. About 30% score noticeably better on one. About 10% have a dramatic preference. Find out which group you're in before you spend 200 hours prepping.

A quick gut-check chart

• Fast reader, good at time pressure. ACT.
• Methodical, careful, second-guess yourself. SAT.
• Strong in math but weak in science reasoning. SAT (no science section).
• Comfortable with charts, graphs, lab passages. ACT.
• ESL or non-native English speaker. SAT tends to be friendlier (shorter passages, more time per question).
• Strong in grammar and rules-based writing. ACT English plays to that.

Format and timing differences that change the game

The digital SAT runs 2 hours and 14 minutes. The ACT runs about 2 hours and 55 minutes for the standard format (without the optional writing section). That's a 40-minute gap. For some students, that matters a lot.

The digital SAT is also adaptive. Your second module of each section gets harder or easier based on how you did in the first module. The ACT is fixed-form. Everyone gets the same questions in the same order. If you like the idea that your performance shapes the test as you go, SAT. If you want every question to be a known quantity, ACT.

Calculator policy is another big one. The digital SAT lets you use a calculator on the entire math section and provides a built-in Desmos calculator in the testing app. The ACT lets you use a calculator on the math section too, but you bring your own and there's no Desmos. Desmos changes some students' lives. Worth knowing.

Which test is easier to improve on?

Here's a question we get from parents constantly. The honest answer: it depends on where you're starting and how much time you have.

For students starting under a 1200 SAT or 25 ACT, the SAT is usually easier to move. The digital format is more pattern-based, the question bank is more limited, and a few weeks of targeted drilling on the most common question types can produce big jumps. We've seen 120-point SAT gains in 8 weeks regularly. Equivalent ACT gains (say, 22 to 27) take more time because the test is broader and pacing improvements come slower.

For students starting above a 1400 SAT or 31 ACT, gains get harder on both tests, but the ACT becomes a real grind. Every question matters more because the scale is compressed at the top. Going from 33 to 35 ACT is brutal. Going from 1480 to 1550 SAT is more achievable for most students.

Caveat. If you're bad at the ACT Science section specifically, that's a fixable weakness. ACT Science isn't really science. It's chart reading under time pressure. Two weeks of targeted prep can move that subscore 4+ points, which moves your composite by 1.

Converting subscore by subscore: the messy truth

There's no official subsection concordance. College Board and ACT have never published one. You'll see unofficial subsection tables floating around the internet, and they're fine as rough guides, but don't treat them as gospel.

If you absolutely need a math-only comparison, here's the rule of thumb students use: SAT Math 800 is roughly ACT Math 36. SAT Math 750 is roughly 33. SAT Math 700 is roughly 30. SAT Math 650 is roughly 27. SAT Math 600 is roughly 24. These numbers track the percentile distributions within each test's math section, but they're approximations.

For verbal sections it's messier because the ACT splits into English (grammar/usage) and Reading (comprehension), while the SAT combines them. Most students average their ACT English and Reading and treat the result as roughly equivalent to their SAT Reading and Writing score divided by 10 minus 30. It's a rough estimate. Don't put it on your resume.

One last thing before you walk away

The concordance table tells you how your score compares. It doesn't tell you whether your score is good enough for the school you want. That's a separate calculation, and it depends on the school's admitted-student profile, your major, your demographic context, your essays, your activities, and a hundred other things.

Use the converter to make smart submission decisions. Don't use it to feel either falsely confident or falsely defeated. A score is a data point. A loud one, but just one.

And if you're sitting there with a 1320 SAT wondering whether to retake the SAT or try the ACT instead, here's our honest take. Try a full-length official ACT practice test this weekend. If you score above a 28 cold, switch. If not, stick with the SAT and grind another 60-80 points. You'll get there.

Frequently asked questions