ACT–SAT concordance calculator and full conversion tables.

The Converter

Convert a score

Three converters: one for the whole test, one for math, one for verbal. Move either slider and the score on the other side updates from the official tables.

Source: the ACT and College Board joint concordance study, published in 2018 (tables A1/A2, B1/B2, and C1/C2). Those tables have not been updated since, and they remain what colleges and scholarship programs use. The verbal converter uses the sum of your ACT English and Reading scores, because the SAT reports one combined score where the ACT reports two.

The Basics

What a concordance actually is

The ACT and the SAT test overlapping skills on scales that share nothing. The ACT Composite runs 1 to 36. The SAT Total runs 400 to 1600. Colleges receive both, scholarship committees write cutoffs in one or the other, and families want to know which score is stronger. A concordance is the translation table that makes that comparison possible.

The current tables come from a joint study ACT and the College Board ran in 2018 on students who took both exams. They matched percentiles across that population and published the result: for every ACT Composite, a single SAT Total plus a range of SAT scores that students with that ACT score actually earned.

That range matters more than most families realize. The single-point number is a convenience. The range is the honest answer, and it is why we never tell a family their student "has a 1310" because they scored a 28.

Concordance is not equating

Equating happens inside one test. It is how ACT makes a 30 in June mean the same thing as a 30 in October, adjusting for small differences in form difficulty. Concordance sits between two different tests built on different scales by different organizations. Equated scores are interchangeable. Concorded scores are only comparable.

Official Tables

The 2018 ACT–SAT concordance tables

All three tables below come from the 2018 study. Nothing here is our estimate.

ACT Composite to SAT Total

Every ACT Composite from 36 down to 9, with its SAT equivalent and the range the 2018 study published around it.

ACT Math to SAT Math

Math section to math section. No range was published for the section tables.

ACT English + Reading to SAT Reading and Writing

The SAT reports one Reading and Writing score. The ACT reports English and Reading separately. To compare them, add the two ACT section scores together, which produces a scale running from 2 to 72.

One naming note. College Board called this section Evidence-Based Reading and Writing until the SAT went digital, and the 2018 concordance tables still use that older name. The section is now just Reading and Writing. Same section, same conversion.

Add the two ACT verbal sections, then read across for the SAT equivalent.

How We Use It

Using the concordance to choose a test

The concordance settles an argument families have every fall: is a 1290 better than a 28? On these tables, a 28 concords to 1310, so the ACT result is marginally ahead. That is a useful answer, and it takes ten seconds.

Where it goes wrong is when the two numbers are not comparable in the first place. A converted score is only as good as the score you feed it, so we ask for two things before running the comparison.

1. Both tests taken timed, start to finish. An untimed practice section is not a score. Pacing is the biggest difference between these exams, and it is the thing an untimed test hides.
2. Officially released material only. Third-party practice tests are not scaled against the real exams, so a score from one of them converts into a number that means nothing.

Once both scores are real, convert one to the other scale and read the gap. A difference inside the published range is noise. Pick the test your student would rather sit for four more times and get to work. A difference of 40 or 50 SAT points or more usually points at something structural, most often pacing on the ACT or the SAT's heavier algebra load, and that is worth acting on.

Where families get burned

The first mistake is converting instead of testing. A concordant score is not a practice score, and we have watched students land 60 points off their converted number in both directions.

The second is switching too late. Concordance can tell you in January of junior year that the SAT was the better test all along. It cannot buy back the hours already spent on the ACT.

The third is reading a scholarship cutoff loosely. A program that says “ACT 29 or SAT equivalent” means the number printed in the official table, not a rounded-up estimate. Check the table before you assume a score qualifies.

On the Other Side

How colleges and scholarship programs use it

• Admissions offices need one scale to read a pool where some students submitted the ACT and others the SAT.
• Merit programs publish a minimum on one test and accept the concorded equivalent on the other.
• Published score ranges for an entering class usually blend both tests, converted to one scale.

No US college prefers one test over the other. A student is never penalized for choosing the ACT, and never rewarded for choosing the SAT. What matters is which test produces the higher score.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Keep Reading

Related resources

• Your ACT Score Isn’t a Verdict. Here’s What to Do Next. · Reading a score report and deciding on a retake
• SAT/ACT Superscoring Sounds Simple. It Is Not. · Which schools superscore, and how that changes the math
• When to Start SAT and ACT Prep · Building a timeline that leaves room to switch tests
• SAT tutoring in NYC · One-on-one prep for the digital SAT
• ACT tutoring in NYC · One-on-one prep for the Enhanced ACT
• Free practice guides and quizzes · Grammar, math, and reading material for both tests

Tables from the 2018 ACT and College Board concordance study. Last reviewed 2026-09-09. Kate Fisher is a board member of the National Test Prep Association.