SAT / ACT Percentile Calculator
Look up the approximate national percentile rank for an SAT total or ACT composite score, based on College Board and ACT norms. Runs in your browser.
Percentiles from College Board (SAT) and ACT national norms; SAT values between anchor scores are interpolated. The percentile rank means roughly this % of test-takers scored at or below your score. National percentiles shift slightly each year — check the current official report for admissions decisions.
About this tool
A test score only means something relative to everyone else who took it, and that is what a percentile tells you: the percentage of test-takers who scored at or below your score. This tool maps an SAT total (400–1600) or ACT composite (1–36) to its approximate national percentile rank using College Board's nationally representative SAT percentiles and ACT's national norms. For the SAT it interpolates between published anchor scores; for the ACT it uses the per-point composite norms. So a 1200 SAT lands around the 74th percentile and a 26 ACT around the 82nd, meaning you scored at or above roughly that share of students. Use it to gauge how competitive a score is and to compare SAT and ACT results on a common scale. Two caveats: national percentiles drift slightly from year to year, and the percentile for a given college's admitted students is different from (and usually higher than) the national percentile — check each school's reported score ranges for admissions. Everything runs in your browser.
How to use it
- Choose SAT or ACT.
- Enter your total (SAT) or composite (ACT) score.
- Read the approximate national percentile.
- For admissions, also compare against each target school's published score ranges.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a percentile rank mean?
- It is the percentage of test-takers who scored at or below your score. An 80th percentile means you scored as well as or better than about 80% of students — equivalently, about 20% scored higher.
- Where do these percentiles come from?
- College Board's nationally representative SAT percentiles and ACT's national norm tables. SAT scores between the published anchor points are linearly interpolated; ACT composites use the per-score norms directly.
- Are the percentiles exact?
- They are close approximations. Official percentiles update each year as the test-taking population shifts, and College Board publishes both a "nationally representative" and a "user" percentile that differ slightly. Use the current official score report for precision.
- How do SAT and ACT scores compare?
- Through their percentiles and official concordance tables. Two scores at the same percentile are roughly equivalent — for example a ~1200 SAT and a ~25 ACT are in a similar range. This tool lets you read each test's percentile to compare.
- Does a high national percentile mean I'll get into a school?
- Not necessarily. Selective colleges admit students well above the national average, so their admitted-student score ranges sit at high percentiles. Compare your score to each school's published middle-50% range, not just the national percentile.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. The lookup runs entirely in your browser from built-in tables.