Why do different score calculators give different answers?

Because every test form converts raw scores slightly differently, and every calculator picks one conversion to build on. Ours are transcribed from a named published source — College Board’s table for the PSAT, ACT’s for the ACT — and each page links to that source. A calculator that doesn’t say where its table came from is asking you to trust a number it can’t justify.

How accurate are these calculators for the real exam?

Accurate for the practice test the table belongs to; a close estimate for a real sitting. Test makers publish a slightly different conversion for every form, the digital SAT and PSAT adapt module two to your module one performance, and the ACT includes unscored field-test questions whose position varies by form. Each calculator states its own version of this limit rather than pretending to precision.

Is there a penalty for wrong answers on the SAT, PSAT or ACT?

No, on all three. Every one of these tests scores only the questions you answer correctly, so a blank and a wrong answer cost the same. Answer everything.

Should I take the SAT or the ACT?

A conversion table can’t tell you — it only says where a score you already have would land on the other scale. The honest way to decide is to sit an official practice test of each and compare not just the scores but how the pacing felt: the ACT asks more questions in less time per question, while the digital SAT gives more time per question and adapts to you.

Do colleges see my percentile or my score?

Your score. Percentiles are context on your score report, not something you send. When comparing yourself, use the “user group” percentile — the one based on students who actually took the test — because that is the population admissions offices work from.

Free SAT, PSAT & ACT Tools

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Score calculators for all three tests, each built on the test maker’s own published conversion table rather than an estimate — and each honest about what it can and cannot tell you. Below them, vocabulary tools for the practice itself.

Score calculators

SAT Score Calculator

Turn your raw score into a digital SAT score out of 1600, module by module.

Also shows where your score sits among 453 practice tests our students have logged.

ACT Score Calculator

Section scores and a Composite out of 36, on the Enhanced ACT format.

Science is optional and no longer counts toward the Composite — most calculators still get this wrong.

PSAT Score Calculator

Your PSAT/NMSQT score range on the 320–1520 scale.

Includes the NMSC Selection Index, which is what National Merit actually screens on.

SAT ↔ ACT Conversion

Convert an SAT total to a comparable ACT composite, or back the other way.

Official 2018 concordance, plus what 285 real students scored on both scales.

SAT Score Percentiles

What your score ranks against all US students, against SAT takers, and against students already preparing.

College Board publishes two different percentiles per score — most sites quote only the flattering one.

PSAT to SAT

What your PSAT score means on the SAT scale.

Spoiler: there is no conversion — the two tests share a scale. The exception is the ceiling.

Vocabulary practice

Words in Context Quiz

Practise SAT vocabulary the way the test asks it — inside a passage.

Timed, with explanations.

Vocabulary Flashcards

Swipe through high-frequency SAT words and mark what you know.

Tracks which words you still need.

Root Words Practice

Build words from prefixes, roots and suffixes.

Learning one root often unlocks a dozen words.

The three tests at a glance

The SAT, PSAT/NMSQT and ACT score differently enough that carrying assumptions from one to another produces wrong answers. This is the map.

	Digital SAT	PSAT/NMSQT	Enhanced ACT
Total score	400–1600	320–1520	Composite 1–36
Sections	R&W + Math, 200–800 each	R&W + Math, 160–760 each	English, Math, Reading, 1–36 each
Adaptive?	Yes — Module 2 depends on Module 1	Yes — same design	No
Optional parts	None	None	Science (reported separately, not in Composite)
Wrong-answer penalty	None	None	None
Every question scored?	Yes	Yes	No — some are unscored field-test items
Who typically takes it	Juniors & seniors	Sophomores & juniors (National Merit entry)	Juniors & seniors

Two of these rows do most of the damage when people mix the tests up: the ACT’s Composite has excluded Science since September 2025, and on the SAT suite your second module’s difficulty — and therefore its point value — depends on how you did in the first.

How a raw score becomes a real score

Every one of these tests starts from the same place: your raw score is simply the number of questions you answered correctly. What happens next is why calculators exist at all.

Test makers write many forms of each exam, and no two forms are exactly equally hard. So each form carries its own conversion table that turns raw scores into scaled scores — the 400–1600 or 1–36 number colleges see — in a way that makes scores comparable across forms. ACT states this plainly: a raw 35 in Math on one form is about as hard to earn as a raw 37 on another, and the conversion absorbs that difference.

The SAT suite adds a second mechanism: adaptivity. Your Module 1 performance routes you to an easier or harder Module 2, and harder-module questions are worth more. That is why two students with the same number of correct answers can score differently, and why our SAT and PSAT calculators ask for each module separately instead of one raw total.

The ACT adds a different wrinkle: field-test questions. Some questions on every ACT are unscored trials for future exams — 10 of 50 in English, 4 of 45 in Math — and their position changes between forms. On an official practice test the answer key marks them; on the real exam you cannot know which of your answers counted, which is why no calculator, ours included, can score a real ACT sitting exactly.

And where a test maker publishes a range rather than a point — as College Board does for the PSAT — the range is the answer. A calculator that collapses it to one number is adding precision the source never contained.

Which tool do you need right now?

Just finished a practice test — use the SAT, ACT or PSAT calculator for the test you sat, with your correct answers per module or section.
Wondering what your score is worth — the percentile lookup places it against all US students, against actual SAT takers, and against students already preparing.
Comparing the two tests — the SAT ↔ ACT conversion gives the official comparable score in either direction.
Took the PSAT, planning the SAT — the PSAT to SAT page explains why your score carries over as-is, and what the 1520 ceiling hides. If National Merit is in play, the PSAT calculator also computes your Selection Index.
Building vocabulary — the three practice tools below drill the same 354-word high-frequency corpus three different ways: flashcards to sort known from unknown, the context quiz to test words the way the test asks them, and the morphology builder to learn the roots that unlock whole word families.

Why these give different answers than other calculators

Every one of these is transcribed from a published source and says so on the page — College Board’s conversion table for the PSAT, ACT’s for the ACT, and for the SAT the same conversion Pursu applies to real student practice tests. Where the source publishes a range rather than a single number, we show the range instead of inventing precision it does not have.

Each page also names its own limits: the digital SAT adapts between modules, the PSAT table comes from a paper practice test, and on the ACT the unscored field-test questions move around between forms so a real sitting cannot be scored exactly. Those caveats are the difference between an estimate you can trust and a number that just looks confident.

One more thing the others don’t have: our own data. Pursu students log their Official SAT Practice Test results in the app — 453 results from 285 students so far — and that sample appears across these pages: as the “where does my score sit” comparison on the SAT calculator, concorded onto the ACT scale on the conversion page, and as a third reference population on the percentile page.

Common questions

Why do different score calculators give different answers?: Because every test form converts raw scores slightly differently, and every calculator picks one conversion to build on. Ours are transcribed from a named published source — College Board’s table for the PSAT, ACT’s for the ACT — and each page links to that source. A calculator that doesn’t say where its table came from is asking you to trust a number it can’t justify.
How accurate are these calculators for the real exam?: Accurate for the practice test the table belongs to; a close estimate for a real sitting. Test makers publish a slightly different conversion for every form, the digital SAT and PSAT adapt module two to your module one performance, and the ACT includes unscored field-test questions whose position varies by form. Each calculator states its own version of this limit rather than pretending to precision.
Is there a penalty for wrong answers on the SAT, PSAT or ACT?: No, on all three. Every one of these tests scores only the questions you answer correctly, so a blank and a wrong answer cost the same. Answer everything.
Should I take the SAT or the ACT?: A conversion table can’t tell you — it only says where a score you already have would land on the other scale. The honest way to decide is to sit an official practice test of each and compare not just the scores but how the pacing felt: the ACT asks more questions in less time per question, while the digital SAT gives more time per question and adapts to you.
Do colleges see my percentile or my score?: Your score. Percentiles are context on your score report, not something you send. When comparing yourself, use the “user group” percentile — the one based on students who actually took the test — because that is the population admissions offices work from.