Alyssa the College Expert: What Is A Good SAT Score?
A good SAT score is a score that gets you into the school you want to go to.
There are lots of online tools to find colleges that match what you want in a school.
The biggest things to remember when thinking about studying for the SAT exam are: don’t cram, create a habit, set incremental goals, and stress less.
Is My SATⓇ Score Good Enough to Get Me Into College?
It’s that time again: Alyssa the SATⓇ Expert answers all your burning questions about the SATⓇ exam! In this video, Alyssa talks about what is a “good” SATⓇ score and why a good SATⓇ score is actually different for everyone, good online tools to find colleges to apply to, and how you should approach taking the SATⓇ exam.
What is a good score?
In short, a good SATⓇ score is a score that gets you into the school you want to go. For that reason, a “good” score is different for everyone.
If you’re getting the score you need to get into your top choice school, you’re doing great - that’s all there is to it!
If you’re thinking, “so what? How do I use this information?”, you have two major options:
Look up schools you want to go to and shoot for a score that will get you in
Find schools that will accept you according to the score you currently have
Tools to find schools
Alyssa mentions several online resources to find schools. These are:
- College Simply: Input your SAT Ⓡ (or ACT Ⓡ ) score and/or GPA and see what colleges you're eligible for. You can search by reach, target, safety, or show all. You can also search/sort by region of the United States
- US News: These are the most widely known/respected college rankings in the United States.
- Big Future College Search: Input the characteristics of the colleges you want, like region, test score, and size, and it outputs a list of colleges that fit those requirements.
- College Scorecard: Get a quick measure of how much money you can make, by college and by major, the first year after you've graduated.
How do I approach studying for the SATⓇ exam?
The biggest things to remember when thinking about studying for the SATⓇ exam are:
- Don’t cram: It’s more effective if you do a little each day.
- Create a habit: By studying a little each day, you’re building strong habits that will serve you well, even after you get your goal score.
- Set incremental goals: Setting small, realistic, easily achievable goals is more motivating than setting large goals.
- Stress less: Take care of yourself generally. Eating healthy food, getting enough sleep, and practicing self care will all help make studying sustainable over the long term.
- Keep it realistic: The closer your studying is to the real exam, the more confident and prepared you’ll be going in - so study like it’s the real test.
