The SAT: Part III - The Importance of the SAT.

So is SAT important? I have met people who think that they can get into an ivy without anything else other than a high SAT score, and likewise I have met people on the other end of the spectrum: that a low SAT score is the end of the world.

Of course a good SAT score doesn't hurt and a bad SAT score is not something to be happy about.

So let's have a few case studies (for US). Again this only represents my opinion and you are free to have your own opinions.

Good everything else, applying to Ivy/top school: Bad score is an anomaly. I am sure you don't want to stand out for that reason. That said, if you are good, they might decide to overlook your bad score and admit you in.

Good everything else, applying to normal school: Who cares about a bad score if everything else looks good?

Nothing outstanding everything else, good score: No chance at ivies/top schools, potential chance at normal schools

For UK:

SAT helps to exempt you from TOEFL, IELTS and other English tests. Some schools dont recognize Singapore schools as English-medium schools and would require you to take the TOEFL/IELTS/whatever. Often a critical reading score of >650 or 600 (depending on the school) would be good enough to certify that you can read and speak English.

For Singapore:

Some scholarships do ask you for your SAT score. You need a minimum of 2100 for A-Star, for example.

Conclusion: Try to get above 2200 and you will be safe, get >2350 and you are more outstanding than your peers by a little bit, but a 2250 is decent enough. Once you get past a certain mark scores tend to count for little. 2100 is not very good and chances go down by quite a bit, 2000 please retake...

If you want to know more information, you can go to the profiles of each individual college you are interested in to see what is the average SAT score of the people that they accept. You can go to the college websites, but collegeboard.com also provides it.