Scores

Each of the questions within a section is ordered by difficulty, other than questions that follow the long and short reading passages which are organized with respect to where in the passage they refer. Thus a question referencing an early part of the passage will occur before a question asking about the passage's conclusion, regardless of difficulty.
 * How is the SAT scored? **

===**Each question on the SAT is worth 1 point regardless of difficulty. Though most questions are multiple-choice, 10 math questions require a numerical answer that the test taker must bubble in on his or her answer sheet. For each of the multiple choice questions, a correct answer will add 1 point to a student's "raw" score, an incorrect answer will deduct 0.25 points to the raw score, and a blank answer will yield 0 points. For the 10 math questions that require a numerical answer, a correct answer adds 1 point to the raw score and an incorrect answer is worth 0 points. **===

===The total number of a student's correct answers (a student's "raw score") on a section gets compared to all other students who took that same test and converted to a "scaled score" from 200 to 800. We commonly think of this as grading on a curve. ===

===Scaling is done to make sure that the same percentage of people on each test, receive the same score to maintain consistency between SAT tests. This process of taking a raw score and computing the equivalent scaled score based on all students' performance on that test is what makes the SAT a standardized test. ===

===For example, on one test date the test may be relatively easy so receiving 50 correct answers, 16 incorrect answers, and 1 blank on the Critical Reading section for a raw score of 46 (50 - (16*0.25)) on the Critical Reading section may be enough for an SAT score of 600, but on another test date the test may have been much more difficult and therefore the average student would have missed more questions. This means your raw score could be lower (say 44) but your scaled score would be the same, a 600. ===

===The SAT Writing section is graded slightly differently than the Reading or Math sections, which simply have a raw score to scaled score conversion. The SAT essay is graded on a scale of 1 to 6 by two raters and their scores are added together for your SAT essay grade. This essay grade is then combined with your score on the multiple choice writing questions for your scaled Writing score from 200-800 based on a table the College Board uses. ===