Do You Remember Your SAT Score? Vote and Let Us Know!

For the high school class of 2026, the terror of the SAT is over (for now). But today’s college-aspiring teens may have had an SAT experience closer to what their parents went through than what their older siblings endured: today, the maximum score on the SATs is 1600, as it was from the 1940s through 2005 … but from March 2005 to January 2016, the tests were graded with a maximum score of 2400 and involved an essay question.

Though many of us have memories of sweating while we studied for the test (or blowing off studying and then sweating in the exam room), depending on what generation you’re from, you probably had a fairly different SAT experience. Here’s how the test changed through the nearly 100 years (!) that it has existed.

Where did the SAT even come from?

The SAT was introduced in 1926 as an essay-based text administered to just a few thousand students seeking admission to highly competitive colleges.

In 1942, the test shifted from essay questions to the standardized tests we use today, and instituted the classic scoring system of 800 possible points for the math section, and 800 possible points for the verbal section. By 1951, the test had exploded in popularity, with over 800,000 students taking it; by 1971, that number has jumped to more than a million annual test-takers.

A different scoring system

Starting in 1994, students were permitted to use calculators, but the biggest change came just over a decade later. In 2005, a new writing section which required students to pen an essay was added — harkening back to those original 1920s tests! Given this new section, the scoring system was changed, with student now able to earn a maximum of 2400 points — 800 for Math, 800 for Verbal, 800 for Writing.

But by 2016, all the new changes had been dropped — the test went back to its old scoring system, and the written essay portion was made optional, so that the test would be more accessible to a larger number of students.

In 2021, the essay went from optional to non-existent, and then test went back to looking a lot more like the test you may have taken in the ’80s or ’90s — though today’s students get to take it on a computer, instead of making sure they have 10 sharpened #2 pencils at the ready.

What was the SAT like when you took it? And do you remember your score? Vote in the poll below — and then let us know your good and bad memories of college admissions testing in the comments.