What’s a Good PSAT Score in 2025/2026?

Did you just get your PSAT score back and are wondering how you did and what you should make of it? First off, about what a good PSAT score is, the good news with the PSAT is it is just for practice. So, if you are not where you want to be, take heart. It is okay. You have time to improve. And what I want to do in this blog for you guys most of all is try to give you a little bit of a heads-up on what your PSAT score at this point is going to put you on track for on the SAT and then what schools that eventual on-track SAT score could potentially be beneficial at. 

Now, I want to get into one reason this blog exists, which is that the College Board—when it went to a newer version of the SAT—changed the way it scores the PSAT. Previously, the PSAT was on a 1600 scale, and now that is no longer the case. The regular PSAT is now on a 1520 score range. What that means is a perfect score on the PSAT is a 1520. So, if you were thinking the SAT is out of 1600 and you only got a 1520, don’t worry, you got a perfect score. Everything’s okay. The PSAT 8/9, if that’s the test that you took, is actually on an even lower score; there are only 720 points per section on the PSAT 8/9. That means your max score on that test is 1440. That puts you on track to eventually get a perfect score on the SAT. The College Board likes to say it’s the same scale as the SAT, but frankly, that’s not how it works. You have time to learn and to expand your mind and to learn more math and to become a better reader and all of these things. The SAT in many ways is supposed to test what you’ve learned in your academic readiness just from school alone, even if you didn’t prepare for it. When you think about it like that, we expect, over time, your ability to perform well on the SAT to go up. So just because you have a 1450 on the PSAT when you want a 1550+ on the SAT doesn’t mean that you’re not on track for that. We need to dig in and look at the percentiles in order to kind of parse that out.

A question I often get asked by students that I’m just going to cover really quickly before we dive into the numbers is, is the PSAT a different test from the SAT? No, not really. It’s basically the same test except that it has a few easier questions. In the same sense that that scoring range is more limited, what that means is there are fewer hard questions. What does that look like in the math section? Maybe you’ll see two to three Algebra 2-level questions on the PSAT, but on the SAT, I would expect to see maybe five or six of those really tough algebra questions. I also see more percentages, rates, ratios, and unit questions on the PSAT in order to fill in that gap. In the English section, it’s more of just a sense that the questions are a little bit easier. The vocabulary is a little bit easier than the SAT. We’re cutting a couple of the really hard questions out and putting some more lower-level or medium questions into the test. But that being said, practicing for the SAT works totally fine for practicing for the PSAT. And in my assessment, it’s not as though there are no Algebra 2 questions on the PSAT. There are just fewer of them. So as I like to say, you can prepare for the SAT to prepare for the PSAT.

If you’re looking to do that for some reason, what is the PSAT good for? There are a couple of ways the PSAT is valuable beyond just being for practice. And that’s if you are scoring in the top 10 percent; then you can be awarded something that’s called a National Recognition Program Award. Those are distributed by the College Board, and they can be distributed to both 10th graders and 11th graders. So if you score in the top 10 percent, you can win that award. And all it is is an award; there are no scholarships attached or anything. The National Merit Scholarship Program is available only to juniors. There are also some other limitations on who can participate. It’s generally students in the United States or US citizens or permanent residents. That generally applies to the top 1 percent of students taking the test, or sometimes maybe the top 2 percent if you want to be a commended student, something like that. So the PSAT matters most for really high scores who are looking for awards.

What’s a good PSAT score? What I would say is if you would like to go to college, the first thing that I would do is make sure that you’re hitting a benchmark. The College Board creates what they call a benchmark SAT score, and that’s the score at which you have a 75 percent chance of getting a C or better in that class in college. If it’s the reading and writing section and reading and writing-related classes, the benchmark score where you have a 75 percent chance of passing on the reading and writing section of the SAT is currently a 480. In the math section, it is currently a 530. Now, because you take the PSAT earlier than you take the SAT, what I would call a benchmark on those is a little bit lower because what I want you to be at is the percentile that relates to that percentile on the SAT. Again, you’re learning in between, or there should be some progress in between. Likewise, students typically practice and prep between the time they take the PSAT and the SAT. So, that rise is sort of what you’re capable of with a very average amount of prep, maybe a small amount of prep, not a lot. The average student probably doesn’t do a lot of SAT prep.

A Decent Score

Let’s talk about what I call a decent PSAT score. To me, a decent PSAT score is at the benchmark or a little bit above. So what I’m looking at is what corresponds percentile-wise to an expected SAT score of about 1010 up to about what would be equivalent to an SAT 1200. So what I’ve done is I looked at the 50th percentile for the 11th grade national sample, and that turns out to be about a 960. Now, if you’re a sophomore, you get a little more cushion. All you need to be on target for a benchmark score is a 920. So scores in this range for a 10th grader, we’re looking at anywhere from about a 920 up to a 1090, is what I would call a decent PSAT score. For an 11th grader, I’m going to up that to about 960 to 1110 or so.

Some schools that are safely in this SAT range, where their median score is about a 1010 or above, are Sam Houston, Rocky Mountain College, Central Michigan, University of West Florida, University of South Alabama, Wichita State University, Texas State, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Kent State, Rutgers, Northern Arizona, University of Toledo, Howard, Florida International University, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Old Dominion.

A Good Score

What’s a good SAT score? To me, a good SAT score is something in the 1200 to 1300 range. So, from a 1210 to about a 1300 percentile. What does this correspond to among the national sample? So if the whole country took the SAT, you’d be at about the 82nd percentile to around the 91st percentile. Now, keep in mind, though, the 91st percentile sounds really awesome. Not all students in America are college bound. Among college-bound students, this is a decent score. But it’s a good score in terms of you being able to get into big state colleges you’ve heard of. You’ll have a little bit more opportunity. Maybe these aren’t going to be the most competitive or academically rigorous colleges in the United States, but you might be able to have an awesome college experience. You’re going to have a chance to do research, to really study whatever it is that you want to study, et cetera. Let’s take a look at where this lines up for 11th graders and 10th graders to be in this range. As an 11th grader, I want to see a PSAT score somewhere between an 1120 and a 1210. As a 10th grader, I would want to see a PSAT score of around 1100 to around 1180 or 1190.

Now here are some schools that align with what I would call a good SAT score among the top 100. Again, there are plenty of other colleges that aren’t in the top 100 where that score is going to help you. Starting with Michigan State University, University of North Dakota, Louisiana Tech, University of South Florida, University of Iowa, University of Illinois, Chicago, Temple University, Baylor University, Texas A&M, Indiana University, Bloomington, and University of Colorado, Boulder, Marquette, Gonzaga, University at Buffalo, SUNY, and University of Delaware.

A Very Good Score

Next, we’re going to talk about what a very good PSAT score is. A very good PSAT score is something that I would say is probably around a 1310 to a 1400 on the SAT. So what would correspond with a 1310 to a 1400 on the SAT according to percentiles? Well, we’re looking for a 92nd to 97th percentile range. I know it sounds really high, but again, not all those students are applying to college. The percentage of students going to a four-year university straight off the bat might be somewhere around 50 to 60%. So take that into consideration. It’s not quite as high among the pool of people applying to college. For juniors, I want to see a 1220 to a 1330 for a very good SAT score range. For 10th graders, I want to see a 1200 to a 1310.

Let’s take a look at what schools this score is about the median at or above. And again, all of the actual ranges, so you can see a little bit more granularity, are on our website. For example, the first school I’m going to read on this list is the University of Connecticut, with a median score of 1320. If you’re at the lower end of that score range, you’re right around the median for the University of Connecticut. But some of these schools, all the way up to when I reached 1400, which is the University of Florida, are super competitive schools. If you want to get into the University of Florida, you better be in-state in some ways because it is pretty competitive. And for out-of-state students, I might want to see a little bit more. So there’s granularity to this. But here’s my list. You can see this list has a lot more options here in the top 100.

These are all top 100 range schools starting with the University of Connecticut, University of Georgia, Auburn, Clemson, Penn State, Purdue, Drexel, Loyola Marymount, Syracuse, Florida State, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Tech, NC State, American University, University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology, Pepperdine, Rutgers, New Brunswick, Minnesota Twin Cities, Colorado School of the Mines, University of Miami, Yeshiva University, University of Florida, UMass Amherst, and Fordham University. And by the way, this doesn’t tell the whole story because UMass Amherst and Fordham are both very test-optional.

A Great Score

Next up, we’re going to talk about what a great PSAT score is. And to me, a great PSAT score is going to put you in line for a 1400 to about 1500 SAT score. A 1400 on the SAT is right in the middle of the 97th percentile. That corresponds to a 1320 for an 11th grader to about a 1410. If you’re looking for a score in the 1400s and you’re a 10th grader, I want to see your PSAT score somewhere between a 1300 and a 1420.

What are some schools where their median SAT score is in the 1400 to 1500 range? Let’s take a look. I would say take some of this with a grain of salt because there’s another factor you guys should be considering, which is which schools are highly test-optional friendly. You can get into that discussion with our other video, which is about how the data revealed the truth about test-optional best and worst bets with or without a test score. But some of the following schools are very test-optional. Even if you’re going to submit a score and you want to score in this range where your average score is like 1400+, you can still get into some of these colleges without that score, but I would go test-optional.

The schools are Stony Brook, SMU, George Washington, University of Washington (which is partially test blind), Santa Clara, Binghamton, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Lehigh, Stevens Institute of Technology, and University of Michigan. That one is one school so far on this list that really is technically test optional, but submitting a score is really going to help you. They admit many more students with test scores than without, in my experience and statistically. Next, we have Rensselaer Polytechnic, Georgia Tech, Villanova, U of I, Urbana-Champaign, Tulane, University of Rochester, Wake Forest, Brandeis, UNC, Chapel Hill, College of William and Mary, Maryland College Park, University of Virginia, Georgetown, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, University of Southern California, and Case Western. We’re going to throw in some liberal arts colleges here too just for fun, not just top 100 colleges: Carleton, Bowdoin, and the University of Notre Dame. All of those have median SAT ranges in the 1400 to 1500 range. Now you should check out the data because it depends on where you’re at in your range.

An Excellent Score

What’s an excellent SAT score? I’m going to call that 1500 plus. What do you need on the PSAT to be on track to get a 1500 plus? Well, as a junior, I want to see a 1410 or above on your PSAT, so a 1410 to a 1520. If you’re a sophomore, I probably want to see something like 1430-plus if you’re aiming for that 1500-plus score. Obviously as a sophomore, you have a lot of time to improve, and it’s also a little bit hard to read because as a 10th grader, there are a lot of scores in that 99th percentile range. So it’s a little bit harder for us to match this up for 10th graders. But with a 1420 or 1430-plus, you’re on track to be at that 1500-plus SAT score, and if you’re at that score, most of my students—if you’re there as a sophomore—you definitely have the ability to get a 1500-plus SAT score if you put in the work and really study and grind and possibly use our online SAT course.

Let’s look at some schools where an awesome SAT score is going to help you: Wellesley, Emory, Tufts, NYU—which is very test optional, but if you want your test score to count, you’ve really got to be in that 1500-plus SAT range—Yale, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Swarthmore, Amherst, Princeton, Williams, Dartmouth, Wash U, St. Louis, Cornell, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown, Vanderbilt, U Chicago, Columbia, Harvey Mudd, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Duke, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, and Caltech in order of lowest to highest SAT range median.

There you go, you guys. That’s a sprinkling of what your PSAT score might put you on track for. If you are more ambitious than your PSAT score, there is hope for you. One, subscribe to our channel. Two, you can start working today on your score. You can join our online course and start doing videos and our self-paced practice problems. You can download free practice problems from the College Board Question Bank online, and you can check out free prep on Khan Academy if you’re not ready to take a class. And once you are, come back to us; find us at supertutortv.com/intensive. We run group classes there. We have private tutors. We also do pop-up classes for those aiming for high scores. We call those super seminars. So check us out, and good luck on your SAT!

National percentile comparison across PSAT / SAT/ ACT scores

User percentile comparison across PSAT / SAT/ ACT scores