What was the average SAT score in 1965?

1. What the historical data show: averages and early‑1960s baselines

College Board and later summaries show SAT section means in the 1950s–early 1960s around the mid‑400s: for example, 1952 mean verbal ≈476 and math ≈494, which together would sum to roughly 970 on the two‑section scale used then ^[1]. Those baseline numbers establish that the early‑1960s national cohort of college‑bound seniors tended to score near the upper‑400s per section before the mid‑1960s downward trend began ^[1].

2. The mid‑1960s decline and commonly quoted 1965 figures

Researchers and historical summaries document a decline beginning in the mid‑1960s. R. B. Zajonc and John Bargh’s analysis cites a drop of about 34.5 points in the overall SAT composite between 1965 and 1977, and one derived presentation places the composite average at 483.5 in 1965 falling to 449.0 by 1977 ^{[2] [3]}. That 483.5 composite figure for 1965 is repeated in derivative web summaries, though original College Board tables for an exact 1965 single‑year composite are not reproduced in the provided results ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Variation in how averages are reported: sections, recentering, and samples

Be cautious: sources use different conventions. Some tables report per‑section means (Verbal and Math), others report combined composites; historical "recentering" and equating procedures mean a numeric score in one era does not map exactly to the same ability interpretation in another era ^[1]. Analysts comparing 1966/1966 school data to 2006, for example, employ "re‑centered 1966 SAT scores" to make cross‑decade comparisons, which complicates direct read‑across from simple averages ^{[4] [1]}.

4. What scholars used the 1965 number to argue — causes and interpretations

Academic work used the 1965–1977 decline as evidence for demographic and family‑structure explanations (e.g., changes in birth order and family size) and for concerns about expansion of test‑taking populations; Zajonc and Bargh discuss the 34.5‑point composite decline as part of those analyses ^[2]. Wikipedia’s history summary likewise frames the mid‑1960s onward fall as both a measured numerical trend (verbal down ~50, math down ~30 over the period) and as subject to interpretation about changing populations and test practices ^[1].

5. Limits of the available reporting and what’s not found here

The search results do not include an official College Board table listing a single canonical "average SAT score in 1965" as a standalone citation in these snippets; detailed NCES tables that span nearby years are linked but not quoted verbatim in the provided results ^{[5] [6]}. Therefore, while multiple scholarly and summary sources cite a composite around 483.5 for 1965 and document the ~34.5‑point drop through 1977, the exact per‑section and composite numbers for 1965 from primary College Board/NCES tables are not fully reproduced in the set of documents supplied here ^{[3] [2] [5]}.

6. How to interpret and use these figures today

If you need a single working estimate for reporting or comparison, the composite ≈483.5 for 1965 (declining to ≈449.0 by 1977) is the frequently cited value in secondary sources and scholarly analyses provided here; use it with the caveat that section‑level means, test equating, and population changes affect comparability across decades ^{[3] [2] [1]}. For rigorous historical work, consult the original College Board/NCES tables (some are linked in the search results) to extract exact per‑section means and understand the methodology used in that reporting ^{[5] [6]}.

Sources cited above: College Board/NCES summaries and historical analyses as found in the provided materials ^{[5] [4] [2] [3] [1]}.