Choices and the SAT

The College Board has released data for SAT Takers in the Class of 2025--and it doesn't show what they think it does.

North Dakota had the highest average SAT score among all 50 states and the District of Columbia among test-takers in the graduating high school class of 2025. North Dakota’s SAT takers scored an average of 1254 on the exam, followed closely by Nebraska at 1249, Wisconsin at 1240, Kansas at 1238, and Wyoming rounds out the top five with an average SAT score among its takers of 1234. All of this information comes from the SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report 2025, published by The College Board last week. (The state-by-state breakdowns are available, but in separate documents. We’ve compiled all the information in one table. Paid subscribers can find a link to it at the bottom of this post.)

Those average scores are not the highlight of the College Board’s press release. The SAT’s maker celebrates the annual number of test-takers crossing 2 million once again. The last graduating class to have over 2 million SAT takers was the High School Class of 2020. The College Board is naturally celebrating the milestone. Remember that the Class of 2020 was done with standardized testing by the time the COVID pandemic hit, so this is a way in which the SAT is coming back to pre-COVID levels.

Except how the test is administered now is wildly different. Literally, the test is different. The SAT went completely Digital in 2024. “The 2024-25 school year was the first full school year of digital testing for the SAT Suite in the United States,” says the Press Release. Priscilla Rodriguez, who is the College Board’s Senior VP of College Readiness Assessments (how did they ever manage to get a quote from her?) said this means “students and educators continue to value the SAT and appreciate the overall digital testing experience.”

Well, that’s one way of looking at it. If you are a current junior, do you have a choice of taking the PSAT this month or did your school tell you when to take it? Did you even think of asking about taking a test that did not have a “digital testing experience”? Or would you realize there was little chance of a paper test because the SAT’s Accommodations guide really only allows paper for students who need the test in Braille?

No one is choosing to take the SAT as a Digital exam. If they are taking the SAT, they are taking a Digital Exam. And what the SAT Annual Report really shows is that most students aren’t choosing anything when it comes to the SAT.

Even those high average scores for North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Wyoming show how few students are actively seeking out the SAT when it is difficult to do so. Those five states had 0.93%, 1.50%, 1.78%, 2.21%, and 1.25%, respectively, of graduating seniors take the test among the Class of 2025. If someone in those states DID take an SAT, they had to make a real effort. These are predominantly ACT states, so a student taking the SAT must make an extra effort to take the test. Just 80 students in North Dakota took the SAT in the Class of 2025.

In fact, there may only be one SAT Testing Center in all of North Dakota: Bismarck High School in Bismarck, North Dakota. The College Board does not have a list of test centers, but placing Zip Codes from all over the state into the Test Center Search tool showed it is only Bismarck High. Finding ACT Testing Centers in North Dakota is a lot easier. North Dakota is an ACT state, with 87% of graduates taking the ACT. (2024 numbers. We’ll have a breakdown of the ACT’s 2025 numbers when it’s released in a week or two.)

This is the real story of the SAT Annual Report for the Class of 2025. Most states are either SAT or ACT states. In Indiana, New Mexico, and Michigan, there were more SAT Takers in the High School Graduating Class of 2025 than actual high school graduates. These states all have every high schooler take the SAT during school, and not every high schooler becomes a graduate. Despite the College Board’s boasting of choice about what test to take, students in reality rarely have one.

The College Board also boasts about the increasing use of SAT School Day. 68% of test-takers in the class of 2025 took the SAT as part of a School Day program. By definition, no one taking the test in school really has the choice between the SAT and ACT. Some students do decide to take both tests, but most only take the first one they are given in school. A full one-third of high school graduates in the Class of 2025 took the SAT during a school day.

Which also means SAT scores are going down. The College Board laments that the average score is not as high as it was pre-COVID. That’s entirely because of the increased use of the SAT School Day. The average test score among School Day takers was 961. For “Weekend Only” takers, it was 1173. The College Board can get better overall performance from test-takers. Or it can have more students take the test. That’s their choice.

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The full table of SAT Takers by State, along with the number of high school graduates and average scores, can be found at the link below. Become a paid subscriber to access it: