SAT Validity

This study represents the first opportunity to examine digital SAT® score relationships with college performance. Results show that digital SAT scores are as predictive of college performance as paper and pencil SAT scores, and they continue to meaningfully improve the prediction of college performance above high school GPA alone.

This study provides initial evidence that digital SAT scores can be used in the same way as current SAT scores. The strength of the relationship between students’ digital SAT scores with their HSGPAs, PSAT/NMSQT Total scores, and Average AP Exam scores parallel the strength of the relationships between the current SAT and these measures. We expect digital SAT relationships with student outcomes, such as first-year GPA, to parallel those found with the current SAT.

This study shows that SAT scores are valuable predictors of bachelor’s degree completion in four years, including when controlling for HSGPA. Results confirm that institutions can use SAT scores with confidence when making admissions, placement, scholarship/honors programs, instructional support, and academic advising decisions.

This study provides strong evidence that the SAT can be a useful tool for understanding and evaluating student readiness for CTE programs and students’ subsequent success in these programs. In particular, we can see that many lower performing students on the SAT can still be successful in the CTE programs studied, and as expected, stronger SAT performance is associated with more positive outcomes for these students.

This study provides an updated understanding of the relationship between a student’s self-reported high school grade point average (HSGPA) and their institution-provided HSGPA, presumably based on the student’s actual high school transcript.

This study shows how the SAT and HSGPA can work together to help institutions confidently admit, place, and support students in their academic majors while promoting student opportunity and success as well as institutional health and success. Findings also show how the SAT can be used to increase diversity in STEM fields.

This study demonstrates the utility and value of Landscape context information, as well as SAT scores, and HSGPA for campus retention analyses, critical academic advising conversations, and related resource allocation on campus.

This study demonstrates the strong utility and value of SAT scores in scholarship decisions, in admission decisions to honors or other selective academic programs, for states that want to continue or start incorporating SAT scores in statewide scholarship programs, and for institutions that want to use SAT to identify top students to recruit for scholarships or selective academic programs on campus.

This document summarizes findings from recent studies that inform conversations around important campus decisions and can guide campus use of SAT scores to promote student success.

This study shares information on the utility and value of the SAT essay for use in college admission, placement, and advising.

This study shares information on SAT score relationships with college performance by key student and institutional subgroups.

This study shows strong, positive relationships between SAT section scores, test scores, cross-test scores, and subscores with domain-specific course grades earned in college, demonstrating that the SAT is sensitive to instruction in English language arts, math, science, and history/social studies.

This study shows the positive relationships between SAT scores and academic performance of international students attending colleges and universities in the U.S.

This study shows the positive relationships between SAT scores and academic performance of students attending higher education institutions outside of the U.S.

This study shows that the validity of the SAT for predicting FYGPA remains stable and strong across cohorts, and that the SAT is essentially as predictive of the longer-term college outcomes analyzed in this study as it is of first-year college outcomes.