The source of dread for nearly 2 million high schoolers every year, the SAT, or Scholastic Assessment Test, is a three-hour juggernaut designed to test a student's reading, math, and writing abilities. Grade point average, extracurricular activities, and supplemental essays are all crucial factors in a college application; however, the SAT provides a way to compare students nationwide, no matter how grades are weighted or how many clubs exist at individual high schools.
For this very reason, the current political administration has proven to be a staunch proponent of standardized testing. In August 2025, President Donald Trump passed an executive order requiring universities and colleges to release information regarding applicants' test scores, race, and grade point averages to make the admissions process "merit-based." Critics of the order point out that this could easily lead to fewer college admissions of lower-income students of color, who may not have the same academic advantages as their wealthier, white counterparts.
The average SAT scores of Black, Latino, and Pacific Islander students lagged behind those of white and Asian students in 2024, according to the College Board, which administers the SAT. And that's not the only issue presented by standardized testing. Many point out that the SAT's narrow and rigid format reduces one's high school education to two subjects: English and math. Then, of course, there's the standardized test's history, with origins rooted in the eugenics movement.
To counteract some of the criticism, the College Board made sweeping changes to the test in 2016, no longer requiring students to memorize archaic vocabulary and removing point penalties for guessing. Then, the SAT went digital in the 2023-2024 school year. Yet average scores still declined, continuing a trend seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls to abolish the SATs continue.
About 2,000 universities dropped the SAT from application requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though many—including Ivy League schools like Brown University and Dartmouth College—have reinstated the testing component in their application process as of 2024, other universities have chosen not to follow suit.
To look closer at how SAT scores vary nationwide, Stacker referenced College Board data reported by PrepScholar to rank the states with the highest performance on the SAT, drawing on results from the class of 2024. Each state's average composite score is included along with the average scores in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math, as well as the participation rate, which indicates how many students in the state took the test. Certain places mandate high schoolers to take the test, leading to higher participation rates but lower scores overall; only states where at least 50% of students took the SAT were included. The data shows that average SAT scores are conversely correlated with the portion of students who take the test in each state (i.e., higher participation rates tend to yield lower average scores, and lower participation rates seem to result in higher average scores).
With that in mind, read on to see where your state stacks up in mastering the SAT.
