SAT to ACT Conversion

What real scores look like on both scales

A conversion number is easier to read when you know where it sits. Pursu students log their Official SAT Practice Test results in the app, and as of 2026-08-07 we hold 453 results from 285 students. Here is that distribution on both scales, with the ACT column produced by running each SAT figure through the official table above.

How to read this honestly: 453 tests self-recorded by 285 students who chose to study with a paid tool and chose to log their results. That is a real sample but not a representative one — the median sits well above the national average precisely because everyone in it is already preparing. Use it to locate yourself among students who are actively studying, which is a harder comparison than the national picture rather than an easier one. The ACT column is concorded, not measured: none of these students sat the ACT.

What a concordance is not

This is where most conversion pages overstate what they are giving you. College Board and ACT built these tables by finding scores that shared a percentile among students who sat both tests at about the same time. That makes them useful for comparison and eligibility — and it makes them three things they are often mistaken for.

• Not equivalence.The publishers state the tables “do not equate scores.” A 1270 and a 27 are comparable, not the same achievement.
• Not a prediction. Converting your SAT does not tell you what you would score on the ACT. Different format, different timing, different demands.
• Not a superscore ingredient. Both organisations strongly discourage combining SAT and ACT results into one superscore. Superscore within a test, never across.

Where these numbers come from

Common questions

Is an SAT to ACT conversion exact?

No, and the publishers say so. College Board and ACT describe concordance tables as "a tool for finding comparable scores" and state plainly that they do not equate scores. A concorded score pairs results that sat at the same percentile among students who took both tests — it is not a prediction of how you would actually perform on the other exam.

What SAT score is equivalent to a 27 on the ACT?

An ACT composite of 27 concords to an SAT total of 1280, within a published range of 1260 to 1290. Going the other way, an SAT total of 1270 concords to an ACT composite of 27. The two directions do not always mirror each other exactly, because the official tables map them separately.

Can I superscore across the SAT and ACT?

No. Both College Board and ACT strongly discourage combining SAT and ACT results into a single superscore, and institutions are advised not to do it. Superscore within one test, never across the two.

Are these concordance tables still current?

The 2018 tables are the only official concordance either organisation publishes, and both direct people to use them. They do predate the digital SAT introduced in 2024 and the Enhanced ACT introduced in 2025, so they were built on earlier forms of both tests. Nothing more recent has replaced them.

Which test should I take?

Concordance cannot answer that, because it only tells you where a score you already have would land on the other scale. It says nothing about which format suits you. The useful version of that question is which test you would prepare for more effectively, and the way to answer it is to sit a practice test of each.

Keep going

• All free SAT, PSAT & ACT tools — every calculator in one place.
• SAT score calculator — raw score to 1600, and the full distribution behind the table above.
• ACT score calculator — raw score to Composite, on the Enhanced ACT format.