Score conversion
Colleges treat the SAT and the ACT as interchangeable, and they compare the two using a published concordance — a lookup table built by ACT and the College Board from students who sat both tests. It is not a prediction of what you would score on the other test. It answers one question only: what ACT score carries the same weight as this SAT score, and the reverse.
ACT composites from 36 down to 9, with the SAT total each one corresponds to. Percentiles are approximate and shift each cohort.
| ACT composite | SAT total | Approx. percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | 1590 | 99th |
| 35 | 1540 | 98th |
| 34 | 1500 | 98th |
| 33 | 1460 | 96th |
| 32 | 1430 | 94th |
| 31 | 1400 | 93th |
| 30 | 1370 | 90th |
| 29 | 1340 | 88th |
| 28 | 1310 | 85th |
| 27 | 1280 | 81th |
| 26 | 1240 | 74th |
| 25 | 1210 | 70th |
| 24 | 1180 | 65th |
| 23 | 1140 | 58th |
| 22 | 1110 | 53th |
| 21 | 1080 | 47th |
| 20 | 1040 | 39th |
| 19 | 1010 | 35th |
| 18 | 970 | 29th |
| 17 | 930 | 23th |
| 16 | 890 | 18th |
| 15 | 850 | 14th |
| 14 | 800 | 9th |
| 13 | 760 | 8th |
| 12 | 710 | 6th |
| 11 | 670 | 5th |
| 10 | 630 | 4th |
| 9 | 590 | 3th |
Convert both of your scores and send whichever sits higher against a college’s own reported range — not whichever number looks bigger. A 1300 SAT and a 28 ACT are read as the same result, so the one that clears more of your list is the one worth submitting. Our 354 college profiles print both ranges side by side.
Two things the table will not tell you. Superscoring is set by each college, not by the concordance, so a college that superscores the SAT may not superscore the ACT. And converting a score never changes it: if you are near a cutoff, retaking the test you are stronger at beats hunting for a favourable conversion.
Take a free adaptive practice test in both formats, get an unofficial score estimate for each, and compare them on the same scale.
Start free practice →A 1200 SAT converts to roughly a 25 ACT composite on the official concordance. Colleges treat the two as equivalent.
A 30 ACT corresponds to about a 1370 SAT total.
No. The concordance is a statistical relationship drawn from students who took both tests, so it tells you how colleges compare the two scores. It does not predict what you would actually score on the other test.
Convert both, then compare each against the reported range of the colleges on your list. Send the one that sits higher within those ranges rather than the one with the larger raw number.
Neither. U.S. colleges that consider test scores accept both and use the concordance to compare them, so the choice is about which format suits you.
Source: ACT and College Board official concordance (2018, latest published version). Percentile estimates are our own and are labelled as estimates throughout. Concordance tables are updated rarely; confirm against the official ACT page before relying on a borderline figure.
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