When Do SAT Scores Come Out? Complete 2024 Schedule

For many people, their SAT test scores are going to have a major impact on their next steps in education. Your SAT scores will have an impact on the college courses that you can attend. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that people are itching to get their hands on their SAT scores as soon as possible.

On this page, we are going to talk a little bit about the SAT score release date. Not only are you going to learn exactly when you can get your hands on those score reports, but we will also give you a bit of helpful advice on working out what your SAT scores mean.

Since we have a lot to cover about the post-SAT test period, let’s just dive right on in!

When Does The SAT Score Release?

The score release date will be dependent on two things:

When you took the SAT test
Where you took the SAT test

We aren’t going to give you a specific score release date here. This is because the test date can vary each year, and we want to ensure that this information is up to date with SAT score release dates no matter when your test date was.

If You Did Your SAT At a Testing Center

If you take the SAT test at a testing center, then your score release date will be around 2 weeks after the test was taken. You can see the scores online using your College Board account (more on that in a short while).

Score Release Date For a SAT School Day

Many people now take their SAT tests at school (known as a SAT school day). If you take it at school, then your score release dates will be slightly different.

Your scores will likely be released about 20 days after you have taken the test. This is because, after the test date, the completed tests need to be taken to the College Board for marking. It adds a few extra days to the process.

Remember, the data that scores are released will change each year. if there is likely to be a delay in release dates, then you will be told so. However, in almost all cases, it should take about two weeks to three weeks.

How To Get Your SAT Scores Using Your Online Account

When you register to take the SAT, you will get a College Board account. This is important for a few different reasons, but it is going to be extra important when the SAT score report rolls around on the SAT score release date. This is because it will allow you to see your official score reports online.

The process to get your online score report is pretty easy, and if you have taken the SAT several times, then you can view the score report online for all of them. It is unknown how long the College Board holds the information, but we are going to assume that it is for a reasonable length of time, possibly a few years.

This is the process for getting your SAT score report:

Wait For An Email

There is no sense in constantly logging in to your College Board account after the test date. We promise you that your SAT score won’t appear for at least 14 days after you have taken the test.

As soon as your SAT scores are released, you will get an email.

About half the students will get this email at 8 am on the day the SAT score is released and the other half will get the score by 8 pm on the same day.

If you have not received the email, then your scores will not be displayed.

The reason why the SAT scores go up at different times for different people is to help prevent the overloading of the system. After all, if you take the SAT, you want your test scores as quickly as possible. The College Board website probably couldn’t cope with thousands and thousands of people trying to get their SAT score results at the same time!

Head To The College Board Website

Once you have received your email, SAT test takers can head to the College Board website and log in to their accounts.

Once you are logged in, the score for your most recent test will be prominently displayed. However, you can also see your SAT results for any past test dates (if you have tried taking the SAT again to get a higher score).

View Detailed Score Reports

If you click your score, then you will get your scores in a much more detailed way. This means that you can read your section scores. This is important if you want to know how well you did on each part of the test.

The raw score is important if you want a bit of feedback on how well you did. This can be especially useful if you want the essay score as some colleges will look at that score individually. Many colleges will look at the whole raw score for each section to get an overview of your aptitude.

What Should You Do If You Have No SAT Score Report?

As we said, scores generally will get released by 8 pm on the day that they are expected to go up. The only way to know that your test scores are live is if you have received an email. But, what happens if you don’t have that email?

Check Your Junk Mail

If you haven’t received the email by 8 pm on the SAT score release date, then it is highly likely that the email has gone into your email’s junk folder. Check it to see if you have something that tells you that SAT scores released.

Login After 8 pm

If you don’t see an email about your test scores, then try and log in to your College Board account anyway. There is a chance that the email system messed up somewhere down the line and your scores are online but you just didn’t get told about it.

Email The College Board Customer Service

If you still didn’t receive your SAT scores, then you can get in touch with the College Board. You can give them a call or use the contact form on their website.

When you tell them that you haven’t received your test scores, make sure that you include your College Board username, your name, and your address so they can check you in the system.

Most students should never need to go this far. As long as you have waited the right amount of time after your SAT date, there is absolutely no reason why your scores shouldn’t be displayed online.

Can You Get a Paper Score Report?

SAT scores are not generally sent by snail mail nowadays.

Most people that get a SAT score will have a College Board account, which means that there is no need for the organization to send SAT scores by mail.

The only time that you are likely to get the results via mail is if you registered for your SAT using a paper form (which is very rare nowadays). You can expect the SAT score release date to be a few days after the online results go up.

If you have a desperate need to have your SAT scores sent by mail, then you can reach out to College Board and ask them. They may send your SAT results that way, and some test takers have had a result asking, but there is no guarantee.

When Is The SAT Score Release Dates To Colleges

This will be between 7 and 10 days after you have received your SAT results. This includes those that had a SAT school day. It doesn’t take any longer in that situation.

Do bear in mind that your SAT score reports are only going to be sent to the colleges that you requested when you registered for the test. If you did not specify any colleges to receive your SAT scores, then you will have to do things manually.

How To Send SAT Scores To Colleges

You can send your SAT score reports manually through your College Board account. You can start the process before or after the SAT score release dates.

Limitations

You can’t blindly send your SAT scores for all of your college admissions. You can send up to 4 scores out for free. However, if you want to send your SAT scores out for free, then you need to register the four colleges before you take the test. If you are sending after the SAT score release dates, then you will have to do so within 9 days.

Any more than 4 colleges, or anything sent more than 9 days after the SAT score release dates will entail a fee of $12 apiece.

Sending Your SAT Scores To Colleges

Because of the potential fees involved, you should ensure that you get your colleges registered before the SAT score release date. You can do this any time up until your test date and before you receive your scores.

Log in to your online SAT account and click ‘Send Scores’. From here, you can choose the colleges that you want to receive your scores.

The process is the same if you are sending the scores after, but do bear in mind that you will be charged if you are doing this more than 9 days after you receive your SAT score.

Some people may want to wait until they have received their SAT score to send the scores. This way, they can check whether they have a decent score first. It prevents sending poor scores to college admissions and gives you an extra opportunity to retake the test.

How To Read Your SAT Score Report

We are sure that you already know how to read your SAT score, but let’s give you an overview of some of the numbers that you will see when you log in to your account to look at your scores.

Overall Number

This is the total SAT score. This is the most important figure (for most people). It is your composite score based on the SAT score of all the SAT scores that you took.

The number will be between 400 and 1600. The higher, the better. Next to this, you will find the score percentile. Your score percentile shows you how you compared to other students. Your percentile score will tell you the % of people that were either at the same level as you or worse. So, for example, if you have a percentile score of 90, then you can assume that you are better than 90% of the other students that took the test on the same test day.

Below this figure, you will find one more piece of information. This is the ‘score range’. This is important for some admissions processes as it gives an idea of what your score would be if you took the test multiple times. Admissions are often looking for a low range here for their data analysis. A low range gives a much better idea of a student’s ability i.e. it allows admissions to check that a person is not just having a ‘good’ day when they got their scores.

Section Scores

Below your overall SAT score, you will see two section scores. These will also display the percentile:

Evidence-based Reading ; Writing (based on the score from your Reading, and Writing, and Language test).
Math

Individual Test Scores

If you view the full report, then you can view the individual results for each of the tests that you took:

Reading
Writing and Language
Math (with calculator and no calculator)
Optional essay

While you won’t be told exactly which questions you got right or wrong, nor your multiple-choice score, you will be told how many questions you got wrong/right overall.

If you take the test, this is incredibly important information. You need to know how you performed on each test. This will allow you to determine whether you performed within your abilities. Some people have off days, after all.

Cross-Test Scores

Your cross-test scores are unique. This is because they are measuring how you answered questions across all of the tests on the test date. This will be broken up into two categories:

Analysis in Science
Analysis in History/Social Studies

Subscores

Finally, you will also receive your subscores. Just like the cross-test scores, these will analyze your answers across all of the categories:

Heart of Algebra
Passport to Advanced Math
Words in Context
Command of Evidence
Standard English Conventions
Expression of Ideas
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis

These scores may come in useful for some admissions boards as it allows them to see your range of abilities. For example, the expression of ideas and standard English conventions may come in useful if applying for a college course heavy on writing.

What Is a Good SAT Score Grade?

It varies from year to year. This is because the total score across the board can be dependent on how hard/easy the test is. This is why it is important to pay attention to the percentile rather than having a target score in mind.

In most cases, you should be aiming for a score of at least 1050 if you are looking to get into an average college. You would want at least a 1350 total score if you want to get into a good college. As we said, this may change year on year, and the average score could be as high as 1100.

A perfect score on the SAT is 1600. If you got that, then well done. You can be sure that when colleges receive scores, you have a much better chance of getting through the selection process!

Can You Take The SAT Again?

You absolutely can take the SAT test again. It is often encouraged. Many students will take the test twice. The first will be taken in the junior year and the second in the senior year.

You can take the test an unlimited number of times, although you will have to pay a $60 fee each time that you want to take the test (some people can take it for free twice, depending on eligibility).

The SAT test is administered seven times each year at testing centers:

August
October
November
December
March
May
June

You can also do a SAT school day test, if your school offers them, in October, March, or April. The fee here will be dependent on the school.

When Should You Take Your SAT Again?

Everybody has off days, we get it. Some people are expected to perform great on the SAT but the test day doesn’t go quite to plan. You have probably seen several High School comedy shows that feature this very plot.

In our opinion, there are two situations where you may want to consider signing up for the next test date. Remember, if you want to retake your test because the score wasn’t as great as you planned, then make sure that you log in to your online CB account and make sure that you change your settings so the colleges don’t receive your scores.

Your Score Is Nowhere Near Your Practice Score

If you are doing your SAT prep properly, then you should have a rough idea of how you may perform on the SAT test date as you would have completed countless practice tests.

If your scores don’t quite match up to your SAT prep scores (and we are talking wildly different here), then it may be worth taking your test again.

Your Score Range is Wide

As we said a bit earlier on, one of the numbers given in your SAT score report will be the score range. This is the range of scores that the examiners believe you would be between if you kept taking the same test.

Most scores are going to have a narrow range, this means that you would be expected to get the same result repeatedly. However, in rare cases, you may find a larger range.

If you have a larger range, and your score is down the bottom of that range, then it may be worth repeating the test to boost your score a little bit.

Surviving Score Release Day

We know that the score release day can be difficult to get through. It may feel as if your entire future is riding on this one single moment. So, we figured we would wrap up with some helpful advice on getting through the day before scores come.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep Beforehand

Your score could arrive any time between 8 am and 8 pm. So, get a good night of sleep beforehand. Tiredness will increase your stress levels. We know that it may be difficult, but we promise you that it will help.

Keep Yourself Occupied

If your SAT score doesn’t arrive at 8 am, there is no sense in hanging around and refreshing the results page. It is likely not going to appear until the latter part of the day.

Keep yourself busy and make sure that you aren’t constantly thinking about your potential scores. Even going for a short walk can do wonders for your mental health.

Don’t Fret About a Bad Score

Got a bad score? It happens, but it isn’t the end of the world.

You can retake the SAT test. Sure, it will cost you $60, but you can try and perform a lot better the next time!

Just know that no matter what score you got, you tried your best on the test day. That’s all anybody can ask of you.

Talk To Your Friends and Family About Your Scores

If you got a great score, then you will probably want to tell your friends and family right away. This is fantastic. Although, you may want to keep your score to yourself if one of your friends didn’t do as well as they expected.

It is equally important to talk to people if you have a bad score. There are people in your life that want to support you, so lean on them for help. Again, this is something that will help with your mental health.

Choose Something To Help You Destress

The SAT test day is hard, and waiting for the results is even harder. Plan something to help you unwind later on in the day. This could be a meal out, or it could simply be playing a game. The choice is yours. Do something that you find fun!

Remember, you can do all of this even if the score isn’t quite what you expected. You still tried and worked hard, so you deserve to unwind.

Conclusion – When Do SAT Scores Come Out?

If you took the SAT at a testing center, then expect your results within 2 weeks of the test date. If you used a school date testing date, then your school day score release will be about 20 days after.

You will receive an email when your scores are live. The email will come in any time between 8 am and 8 pm.

Josh Hutcheson

E-Learning Specialist in Online Programs & Courses Linkedin