www.act.org/research-policy
RESEARCH NOTE
OCTOBER 2009
The concordance
tables are only
applicable to SAT
scores obtained after
January 2005 and
before March 2016.
ACT-SAT Concordance Tables
In 2005, the College Board added a required
Writing test to the SAT and ACT added an
optional Writing test to the ACT. Before
2005, the ACT and the College Board had
periodically produced concordance tables to
assist admissions officers who wanted to
understand how students of comparable
ability would score on the two college
entrance examinations. Given the changes
and ACT are now providing updated
concordance tables that are appropriate to
the current versions of the two tests.
Students who take the SAT receive three
separate test scores: Critical Reading,
Writing and Mathematics. Students who take
the ACT receive a Composite ACT score
and four subscores (Reading, English, Math
and Science). Students who take the ACT
Plus Writing receive the ACT Composite with
the corresponding four subscores (Reading,
English, Math and Science) and also receive
a Writing subscore and a Combined
English/Writing subscore.
Two separate concordance tables have been
developed:
• Table 1 provides a concordance between
the ACT Composite Score and the sum
of SAT Critical Reading and
Mathematics scores for 300,437
students.
• Table 2 provides a concordance between
the ACT Combined English/Writing
190,148 students who completed the
ACT Plus Writing.
Both tables are based on scores from
students who took both tests between
September 2004 (for the ACT) or March
2005 (for the SAT) and June 2006. Students
in the sample represent the first high school
graduating cohort since the introduction of
the SAT with Writing and the optional Writing
section on the ACT. The sample includes
students who completed both tests and were
matched across ACT and SAT files. While
these two tables are provided to help the
education community better understand how
students of comparable ability will score on
the two tests.
A research report describing the sample,
methodology and results will be published by
months. Additional information and updates
will be made available on the websites of
ACT (www.act.org) and College Board
(www.collegeboard.org). The following notes
and cautions should be considered before
using the tables.
• Because the SAT score scale has more
score points than the ACT, a single ACT
Composite score concords to a range of
SAT scores. In each of the tables, a
range of SAT scores is concorded to a
single ACT score. For example, in Table
1, the SAT (Critical Reading plus
Mathematics) scores of 980 to 1010 are
all concorded to an ACT Composite
concord an ACT score to a single SAT