How important is SAT?

Answered

SAT does matter in college admissions processes. It is taken into account when they first judge your academic profile. But judging from your score right now, I think you're fine

As someone who was in your exact position 3 years ago, I would tell you not to worry. In eighth grade, I took the PSAT 9 and got your exactly score: 1220. It's okay. It was my first time taking a standardized test and I didn't even know that my grade was taking it until the day of. I didn't even know what the PSAT-9 was graded out of. When I (incorrectly) googled, I thought that I just scored a 1220 out of 1600, completely panicked and started doing Khan Academy SAT prep.

If I remember correctly, my 1220 on the PSAT-9 was already 97-99th percentile (I forgot). I would assume that perhaps that's the percentile you have. Pay attention to that rather than your score. You did better than ninety something percent of people. With time and practice, you only have room to improve.

My journey since that 1220 on the PSAT-9 in eighth grade has only been improvement. The first time I took the PSAT in 10th grade, I got a 1430. The second time I took it, a year later, I got a 1490, qualifying me for National Merit Semifinalist. The first time I took the SAT in October, I got a 1450. I took it again in March and received a 1540, which I think I'm going to stick with.

You're still young. The scores you have right now are not a true predictor of how you'll do in the future. Start practicing early. I recommend Khan Academy. It's free and has TONS of practice questions and tests. You will see improvement if you work hard and from my experience, I'm sure you'll be able to achieve a 1500+

I hope this helped. Good luck!

So for reference assuming no growth on my own PSAT as a 10th grader on my PSAT I got a 1110 which is a 1240 SAT and a 26 ACT. I am unable to find a a 9/10 PSAT conversion. But that is slightly better than what I got as mine is 1110 out of 1560 so yours is actually from what I can tell yours is better so I would guesstimate you have something in the low 30s or super high 20s possibly a 29-31. And assuming a growth of 2/3 ACT points you should get round about a 31-34 and that’s out of a perfect 36 so Id say your in a stellar condition as the ACT average for UCLA is 29-34 so you’re in the upper half more than likely

DONT QUOTE ME on the scores.

Remember UCLA doesn’t super score and is holistic

I used act since they are smaller numbers and as a midwestern most Midwest schools prefer ACT. I also used UCLA as the reference as it’s accepted it’s the 2nd top public school after Berkeley and Berkeley is more or less a public ivy and UCLA is just a top tier non public ivy in my opinion