If you scored 1350 or more on Bluebook, expect the real SAT to come in about 40 points lower. Below 1250, most students score higher on test day. In between, the two land close. Set your Bluebook score below to see where students like you landed.
Bluebook vs Real SAT, Reported By Students Like You
From students whose last Bluebook score was between 1450 and 1499.
The median student with your Bluebook score: half scored higher, half lower.
Heads up: at 1450, students typically scored about 40 under.
Just took the November SAT? Scores come out November 20 (see When do SAT scores come out?). Set your last Bluebook score above: the middle half is where students like you landed. Our SAT Score Calculator estimates yours from the questions you think you got right.
Taking the SAT on December 5? The middle half above is about where you’d land today. Register by November 20 (late registration runs to November 24), and Aniko builds your study plan around that date.
Already have your real score? If it falls inside the middle half, your test day was a normal one, and that’s about your level today. To beat it on a retake, raise your level first. Our December retake plan shows how in the weeks you have.
Why It Depends on Your Score
One test is one day. A high Bluebook score often came on a great day, and the SAT is more likely to be an ordinary one. A low score often came on a rough day, so test day lifts it. That’s why the line below slopes down.
Find your score along the bottom. Above zero, students scored higher on the real SAT, and the shaded band shows where the middle half landed.
Which Bluebook Test Is Most Accurate?
Any Bluebook test works. Test 11 lands closest most often. Your score matters much more than which test you took.
- Test 4+2046%
- Test 5−2045%
- Test 6048%
- Test 7052%
- Test 8054%
- Test 9−1048%
- Test 10050%
- Test 11+1057%
- Aniko Estimate050%
Test 4 reads a little low, because students take it earliest and keep learning after it. The last row is Aniko’s score estimate: for students who answered 300 or more questions, it lands right on target.
Aniko’s Estimate Is On Target from 1350 Up
Aniko’s score estimate is built from every question you answer, not from one test day. From 1350 up, the typical student who answered 300 or more questions on Aniko scored within 10 points of their estimate on the real SAT. Sam was one of them:
“My Aniko score estimate and my real August SAT are both a 1540”
Bluebook ran a little high for students at the same level: the typical one scored 20 points under it.
- 1350 and upEstimate+10
- Bluebook−20
See How does the score estimate work? and Is my score estimate accurate? Bluebook vs Aniko
Bluebook Runs Easy, Aniko Runs Hard
Aniko’s full practice tests are harder than the real SAT. Most students scored higher on test day than on their last Aniko test. That makes them a great partner for Bluebook, which tends to read high from 1350 up.
Sam felt it too: “The official Bluebook ones, I think, are easier compared to the official SAT, as I was getting higher in them. But the Aniko practice tests, holy, were a real challenge.”
Make Your Practice Score the Best Predictor
Use more than one score. Take one or two Bluebook tests and one or two Aniko tests, and watch your Aniko score estimate. For 91% of students, the real SAT landed between their lowest and highest of those scores, give or take 50 points.
Average your last two or three Bluebook tests. Your average is a better guide than your best day:
- Your average lands within 50 points for most students.
- Your best test runs high. Students scored about 50 points under it.
Take each test like the real one. Time it, take it in one sitting and answer every question. A blank always counts as wrong.
Take your last tests close to the SAT. A test from a month or two out reads about 20 points low, because you keep learning after it.
Every question counts. Near the top, one question can be worth 10 to 20 points in a section. Two careless mistakes can cost you 40 points. See How is the SAT scored?
How Far Off Is Normal?
A miss of up to 100 points either way is normal. 4 in 5 students land that close to their last Bluebook test. Even two real SATs on two good days land about 30 points apart.
Parsa’s last Bluebook test before his March SAT came in at 1490, below his first at 1510. He walked out of the SAT sure he’d missed something in Math, and scored 1550. Add your Bluebook and real scores to Aniko to see them next to your estimate. See Add an official SAT or Bluebook score
Quick Answers
Not by the scores. At the same Bluebook score, October students did about 10 points better than students on other test dates. A test can feel hard and still score normally.
Neither one is curved against other students. Both score you on which questions you got right and how hard they were. Bluebook tests adapt just like the real SAT, so a harder second module means the same thing on both. See How is the SAT scored? Is it curved?
Take at least two or three, so you can average them. In College Board’s own study, students who took three or more full practice tests scored about 60 points higher than students who took none. Save most of them for the last few weeks before your SAT.
Bluebook is College Board’s app for the digital SAT, and its practice tests are free. Aniko isn’t affiliated with College Board.