Each year, colleges receive so many enrollment applications for only a limited number of spots.To decide which students can attend, colleges look at grades and standard test scores like the SAT and ACT.

The SAT exam has three parts - Writing, Math, and Critical Reading. Each of these sections is graded on a scale of 200 - 800 points. Then the points are totaled for a final SAT score.

For example, suppose you scored the following on each section:
Writing: 700
Math: 650
Critical Reading: 600

This will give you a total score of 1950 points.

Later on, we'll take a look at some examples involving SAT scores. For now, let's look at some statistical definitions that we can use to describe data.