According to the College Board, the average combined reading and math SAT score among students who graduated last spring is down to 1021.
The average reading score fell five points to 503 and math fell two points to 518.
Overall combined scores for mathematics and critical reading dropped by seven points from last year, which represents less than 1 percentage point, and was the sharpest drop in more than three decades.
Males experienced a greater score decline than females in critical reading across all ethnic groups.
Males outscored females across all ethnic groups in mathematics.
Females outperformed males in writing across all ethnic groups.
The high school class of 2006 was the first to take a new version of the SAT, which now requires students to write an essay.
Only 8 percent of essays were identified as using the typical five-paragraph essay format.
Half of all essays were written in the first-person voice and received an average score of 6.9 versus 7.2 for all others.
15 percent of essays were written in cursive, while the other 85 percent were printed. Essays written in cursive received a slightly higher score (7.2 for cursive, compared to 7.0 for those printed).
The College Board members believe that one factor in the score drop is that some students took the test only once, rather than twice. Typically, students who take the test a second time see a 30-point increase on their combined score.
The College Board offers a SAT Preparation Center, a Subject Tests Preparation Center and a SAT Subject Tests Preparation Booklet.