If you are interested in taking the SAT, we thought you might be interested in knowing a little bit about the test, who takes the test, and so forth. We’ve piled up a small collection of SAT Quick facts you may be interested in:

History of the SAT

• First SAT was developed in 1901 as a means of determining intelligence without systematic bias (much like an IQ test)
• SAT originally stood for: “Scholastic Achievement Test”
• In 1941, College Board changed the name to “Scholastic Aptitude Test”
• In the years between 1941 and 1994, the scores steadily decreased as more and more unqualified students began to take the test
• In 1994, the test mean was re-centered and the test re-named to simply SAT (no abbreviation)
• So, SAT doesn’t really stand for anything!
• In 2005, the SAT was modified and a new “Writing” section, complete with an essay, was added
• Before the re-centering in 1994, only about one student in every administration earned a “perfect” 1600 score. Now, multiple students per administration receive such a score

Testing Stats
• The SAT is administered seven times a year in the US and six times a year overseas
• The SAT test consists of three scored sections, each on a 200-800 point scale
• About two million students take the SAT worldwide each year
• The mean total score on the SAT (out of 2400) is about 1520
• The SAT is scored and curved on a modified normal distribution
• SAT Subject Tests are scored and curved on skewed (sample) curves
• The total length of the SAT Reasoning Test is three hours and forty-five minutes
• The total length of the SAT Subject Test is one hour