The Concordance Table — How to Compare Your SAT and ACT Scores

You took a practice SAT and scored a 1260. You took a practice ACT and got a 27. Which one is better? You can't just eyeball it — the scales are completely different. That's what the concordance table is for. It's the official tool for translating between SAT and ACT scores, and it's what colleges use when they're comparing applicants who submitted different tests. Understanding how it works, where it's reliable, and where it breaks down will save you from making bad decisions about which test to prep for and which score to send.

The Reality

The concordance table is a statistical product, not a simple conversion chart. It was developed jointly by the College Board and ACT, Inc., using data from students who took both tests within a close time window. The researchers used a method called equipercentile linking — they matched score points on the two tests that correspond to the same percentile rank in the population of students who took both (College Board & ACT, Inc., "2018 ACT/SAT Concordance," based on methodology described in Dorans et al., 2007, and updated concordance research). A 1200 SAT and a 25 ACT aren't "equal" because someone decided they should be. They're linked because, in the concordance study, both scores fell at approximately the same percentile rank among dual test-takers.

This distinction matters because it means the concordance is an empirical finding, not a formula. There's no equation where you divide your SAT score by some number and get an ACT score. The relationship between the two scales is nonlinear — the conversion ratio shifts at different points along the score range. At the low end, a 10-point SAT increase might correspond to a 1-point ACT increase. At the high end, that same 10-point SAT increase might correspond to only half a point on the ACT. The table captures these shifts because it's built from real data, not arithmetic.

The practical implication is that colleges treat concorded scores as equivalent. When an admissions office says they accept both the SAT and ACT, they mean it — and the concordance table is how they ensure fairness across applicants. The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has consistently affirmed that member institutions do not prefer one test over the other, and the concordance is the mechanism that makes this policy work in practice.

The Play

Here are the key benchmarks you need to know. These come from the 2018 joint concordance published by the College Board and ACT, Inc., which remains the current official reference [VERIFY whether an updated concordance has been published post-2024 digital SAT].

| SAT Score | ACT Composite | |-----------|---------------| | 1600 | 36 | | 1560 | 35 | | 1520 | 34 | | 1480 | 33 | | 1440 | 32 | | 1400 | 31 | | 1360 | 30 | | 1320 | 29 | | 1280 | 27-28 | | 1240 | 26 | | 1200 | 25 | | 1160 | 24 | | 1110 | 23 | | 1060 | 21 | | 1010 | 20 | | 960 | 19 |

A few things to notice. The relationship isn't a clean ratio. Going from a 25 to a 31 ACT (6 points) corresponds to going from 1200 to 1400 SAT (200 points). But going from a 31 to a 35 ACT (4 points) corresponds to going from 1400 to 1560 SAT (160 points). The scales compress differently at different levels, which is why you can't just multiply or divide and expect an accurate conversion.

How to use this after your diagnostic tests. Take your SAT score, find it in the table, and note the corresponding ACT score. Take your actual ACT score and compare it to that concorded value. If your actual ACT is higher than the concorded SAT equivalent, the ACT is producing a better result for you. If your actual ACT is lower, the SAT is your stronger test. You can also do this in percentile terms — look up the percentile rank for each score on the respective test's percentile charts (published annually by both College Board and ACT, Inc.) and compare directly.

Here's a concrete example. Say you scored a 1260 on the SAT and a 27 on the ACT. The concordance table shows that a 1260 SAT corresponds to approximately a 26 ACT. Your actual ACT score of 27 is one point above your concorded SAT equivalent. That's a small gap — probably within noise range. You'd want to see a gap of 2 or more ACT points (or roughly 40+ SAT points beyond the concorded equivalent) before declaring one test the clear winner.

Another example. You scored 1180 on the SAT and 26 on the ACT. The concordance table puts an 1180 SAT at roughly a 24 ACT. Your actual ACT of 26 is 2 points above concordance — that's a meaningful signal. The ACT is outperforming your SAT, and directing your prep energy toward the ACT is likely the right call.

The Math

The concordance was built using equipercentile linking, a standard psychometric technique described in detail by Dorans et al. (2007) in their work on score linking across test batteries. The method works like this: take a large sample of students who took both the SAT and ACT. For each SAT score, find the percentile rank in the dual-testing sample. For each ACT score, find its percentile rank. Then match SAT and ACT scores that fall at the same percentile. A 1200 SAT and a 25 ACT are concorded because they both fell at approximately the 75th percentile [VERIFY exact percentile for 1200/25 in current distribution] among students who took both tests.

This method has known limitations. The biggest one: it assumes the dual-testing population is representative of all test-takers. But students who choose to take both tests are not a random sample — they tend to be higher-performing and more strategically minded about admissions. This means the concordance may be slightly less accurate at the low end of the score range, where fewer dual-testers contribute data. In practice, the concordance is most reliable in the middle of the score distribution (roughly 1000-1400 SAT / 20-31 ACT) and gets wobblier at the extremes.

At the very top of the scale, the concordance compresses heavily. The difference between a 35 and a 36 ACT, or between a 1560 and a 1600 SAT, is a handful of questions. Small differences in raw score produce big-seeming differences in scaled score, and the concordance can't capture those fine distinctions cleanly. If you're scoring above a 1500 SAT or above a 33 ACT, the concordance becomes more of a rough guide than a precise tool. At that level, the difference between your two test scores is less about which test "fits" you and more about which test happened to align with your performance on a particular day.

Similarly, the concordance assumes both scores come from full, timed administrations under standard conditions. A practice test taken at your kitchen table at 10 PM is not the same as a real test at 8 AM in a testing center. Don't use the concordance to compare a casual practice score on one test with a serious, proctored score on the other. The comparison only works when both inputs are equivalent in rigor.

What Most People Get Wrong

The most common mistake is treating the concordance as a prediction tool rather than a comparison tool. The table tells you how two existing scores relate to each other. It does not predict what you would score on one test based on your score on the other. A student with a 1300 SAT might score a 28, a 29, or a 26 on the ACT — the concordance says 28 is the most likely equivalent, but individual variation is wide. The only way to know your ACT score is to take the ACT.

The second mistake is using one practice test to make a concordance comparison. Scores on a single sitting include random variance — you might have had a good or bad day, the specific questions might have played to your strengths or weaknesses. The concordance comparison becomes reliable when you're comparing averages across at least two full sittings on each test. If you've taken two practice SATs averaging 1280 and two practice ACTs averaging 28, that's solid comparison data. If you've taken one of each, you're working with a noisy signal.

The third mistake is thinking that rare exceptions to concordance equivalence matter for your decision. A handful of highly selective programs have historically shown slight preferences — for example, some engineering programs have reportedly weighted math subsection scores differently across the two tests [VERIFY specific examples of programs that weight sections differently]. But for the vast majority of colleges and the vast majority of applicants, the concordance is the standard. Admissions officers at the schools you're likely applying to are using these tables. Trust them.

The fourth mistake, and maybe the most costly one, is getting stuck in a conversion loop instead of just prepping. Students who take one practice SAT and one practice ACT, see similar concorded scores, and then take two more of each trying to break the tie — that's four full practice tests spent diagnosing instead of improving. If your concorded scores are within 1-2 ACT points of each other, the tests are equally good fits. Pick one based on whichever felt more comfortable, commit, and start prepping. The marginal gain from choosing the "right" test is real but small. The marginal gain from 40 additional hours of focused prep is much larger.

This article is part of the ACT vs. SAT - The Honest Comparison series at SurviveHighSchool.

Related reading: SAT Brain vs. ACT Brain — How to Tell Which Test Fits You, The Structural Differences That Actually Matter Between ACT and SAT, When to Switch from SAT to ACT (or Vice Versa)