Everything You Need to Know About ACT Scores

How prepared you are for a college education is determined by your ACT score. The submission of standardized examinations is now optional at many colleges as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. Nevertheless, if you still intend to submit your ACT results, they will play a significant role in your application profile.

It's a terrific idea to be well-informed about your ACT results before to taking the test. As a result, we will go in-depth and cover everything there is to know about the ACT scores in this article. Put your seatbelts on!

How the ACT Is Scored

The ACT exam is composed of four tests:  

1. English

2. Math

3. Reading  

4. Science

Each of these tests also have their own test scores that range from 1 to 36. Your final ACT score, or composite score, is obtained by calculating the average of all four test scores, rounded down to the nearest whole number.  

So how are each of the four subject test scores calculated?  

After the number of questions answered correctly on each test (also known as your raw score) is taken, it’s converted into a scaled score ranging from 1-36 according to the ACT’s official scale.  Once the score of all four subject tests is determined, you can get the average of the four scaled scores, and then you’d have the final ACT composite score.    

Understanding Your Score: Factors to Consider

While the ACT consists of four mandatory subjects, and one optional writing test, only the mandatory subject tests will be accounted for in your ACT score.  

Keep in mind that each subject is composed of smaller topics and concepts.

The ACT Math test, for example, will ask questions about topics including operations, fractions, algebra and functions.  How well you do in each of these smaller categories will affect how high your ACT composite score will be.  

Your ACT score will be delivered to you on a score report. The report will contain all the information you need to know about your ACT score, including your composite score and each score for the various subject tests.  

The ACT score report gives you an in-depth understanding of how you performed, not just in a broad sense, but for each subject as well.  

ACT Reporting Category

Your ACT score report will contain reporting categories, which are detailed breakdowns on how well you did in each topic in the test. This doesn’t just include breakdowns for the four subject tests, but also smaller sub-categories.  

For each reporting category, there will be:

• The total number of questions in that category
• The number of questions answered correctly
• The percentage of questions answered correctly
• Your college readiness for each category

The reporting category gives a clear and detailed introspect for both you and your colleges. It helps colleges assess your skills, abilities and determine whether or not you’re qualified for the program you’re applying for. At the same time, it gives you guidance on what areas to improve on in the future; especially if you’re planning to retake the test.  

College Readiness

College readiness is another very important measurement in your ACT score report. As mentioned before, the ACT test is meant to see whether or not you’re ready for the beginning of post-secondary education. Scores are an excellent evaluation of someone’s abilities, but they do have a weakness.  

Each of the different categories vary in difficulty, so your score is not necessarily a solid indicator of your proficiency. As a result, it’s a bit hard to determine what constitutes a “good” score for each category. That is not to say that scores don’t matter, but the inconsistent difficulties across all the different categories makes it a little troubling to measure performance.  

For example, you could get 85% of the questions right in an easy category, but a good percentage would actually be 90%. Meanwhile, a 70% correct percentage would be considered good in a difficult category.  

Here is where college readiness comes to play. College readiness factors in the difficulties of each category, each question, and determines which scores are considered good for that specific category. That way, you can figure out whether or not you’re truly college ready in that area. Therefore, readiness provides a more consistent measurement on how well you did.

College readiness is given for both your subject test scores and the scores for the reporting categories, but not for the overall composite score.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks are another assessment of college readiness, although instead of ranges like with the ACT readiness range shown in the reporting categories, benchmarks are presented as specific ACT test score values. If your score is equal to or higher than the benchmark score, that means you have at least:  

• A 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher, or  
• A 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in corresponding credit-bearing first-year college courses

Note that the percentages above are all approximates. And of course, the higher your actual ACT tests are, the more likely it is for you to get a C or B, or better.  

Average Scores and Ranking Results

In addition to an in-depth breakdown of your own score, your ACT score report also shows you where you stand in comparison to other test takers who took the same test as you. This is shown in the “ranking results” section, where you will see what percentage of test-takers got a lower or an equal score to your scores.  

These results are ranked both in the entire US, as well as in the state where you took your ACT test. Let’s say your composite score got a US Rank of 61%. This means you got a composite score that is greater than or equal to the scores of 61% of the test takers in the entire US.  

The ranking result percentage is available for your composite score and each of your subject tests, including the optional writing test. Unfortunately, your score reports won’t show the average scores of nation-wide or state-wide test takers. However, you can still use the result rankings to get a rough idea on how well your peers did.  

Tips on Improving your ACT score

Now that we’ve gone over everything you need to know about your ACT score, you might be asking: how can I improve my score?  

Start Your Preparation Early

Time is money. The more time you have, the more practice you can get, and practice makes perfect. If your preparation is hastily done, you could end up with a lower score than you could’ve gotten if only you had more time to prepare.  

Preparing early is one of the best ways to maximize your performance.

Know What the Test Covers

Just having time is not enough. You must also know what specifically to prepare for. The reporting categories we’ve covered earlier can give us clues as to what the ACT covers, but here is a list on what you should study for.  

Math

In the Preparing for Higher Math category covers many topics in high school mathematics and is further divided into five subcategories. Let’s get into the details of each:

Number & Quantity (7–10%)

• Demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of real and complex number systems, including integer and rational exponents, and vectors and matrices.
• Know how to use, calculate, and reason with numerical quantities

Algebra (12–15%)

• Show understanding of the following types of algebraic expressions and equations, including but not limited to linear, polynomial, radical, and exponential relationships.
• Solve, graph, and model multiple types of expressions  
• Find solutions to systems of equations  

Functions (12–15%)

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of functions, such as: linear, radical, piecewise, and polynomial  
• Understand the definition, notation, representation, and application, manipulation and translation of functions
• Show ability to interpret, identify and plot different types of functional graphs, as well as do operations with them

Geometry (12–15%)

• Define and apply knowledge of shapes and solids
• Understand composition, and solve for missing values the shapes and figures
• Understand and apply concepts such as congruence and similarity relationships or surface area and volume measurements
• Understand and use trigonometric ratios

Statistics & Probability (8–12%)

• Understand and describe center and spread of distributions
• Apply and analyze data collection methods
• Understand relationships in data
• Calculate probabilities, including related sample spaces.

Integral Essential Skills (40-43%)

• Know how to synthesize your understandings and skills and combine them to solve more complex problems, even those that involve concepts and skills that are unrelated to one another
• Apply skills in different contexts, and show fluency in application
• Understand concepts that you often see in real life, such as: rates and percentages, proportional relationships, and area, surface area, and volume

English

Questions in the English subject test involve your understanding of the English language and your ability to write well and effectively with as little errors as possible.  

Production of Writing (29–32%)

• This category tests your ability to understand and use the purpose and focus of a piece of writing
• Understand how the topic is developed by different parts of text
• Ensure that a text is logically organized, and has an effective introduction and conclusion, and a smooth overall flow.

Knowledge of Language (13–19%)

• These questions tests your skills in effective language use  
• Ensure word choice is appropriate, beneficial, or concise
• Maintain consistency in style and tone.  

Conventions of Standard English (51–56%)

• These questions test understanding of the conventions of standard English  
• Also tests your abilities to make revisions to fix errors and improve original text.

Reading

As the name suggests, the Reading subject test evaluates your reading comprehension abilities and reading skills.  

Key Ideas and Details (55–60%)

• Determine central ideas and themes
• Summarize information, points and ideas accurately
• Understand relationships and draw logical conclusions of different parts of text

Craft and Structure (25–30%)

• Determine word and phrase meanings according to surrounding context
• understand the author’s purpose and perspective through word choice or text structure
• Differentiate between various different perspectives and sources of information

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (13–18%)

• Differentiate between facts and opinions
• Find evidence in the text and use them to make connections  
• Analyze how authors construct arguments and to evaluate the reasoning and the evidence  

Science

The content of the science test covers biology, chemistry, physics, and the Earth/space sciences (for example, geology, astronomy, and meteorology).  

Interpretation of Data (40–50%)

• Know how to interpret, analyze, and calculate scientific data presented various forms, such as in scientific tables, graphs, and diagrams  
• Recognize data trends
• Translate tabular data into graphs and vice versa
• Interpolate
• Extrapolate
• Reason with data

Scientific Investigation (20–30%)

• Demonstrate understanding of experiments and various experimental aspects, such as: tools, procedures, hypothesis, and design (e.g., identify controls and variables)  
• Know how to manipulate and modify experiments  

Evaluation of Models, Inferences, and Experimental Results (25–35%)

• Judge the validity of scientific information and find valid evidence  
• Construct predictions and conclusions and predictions based on given information

Ask Your Teachers for Help

As you might already know, a lot of the ACT test content are taught in high school. And because this is a test for those about to enter post-secondary education, the difficulty of ACT questions are roughly equal to Grade 11 to 12 courses of the equivalent subjects.  

So if you’re struggling with any type of questions, asking your teachers for help is an excellent way to get some guidance and assistance.  

Final Thoughts

After this in-depth breakdown on ACT scores, you can feel more confident knowing what to expect when taking ACT tests. Keep in mind that even though you can’t get a breakdown of your performance before your first ACT test, the information is still very helpful when deciding whether you need to take a future test.  

At its core, ACT score reports are designed in a way to understand yourself: what are you strengths, weaknesses, and whether or not you’re ready for college. And if not, how can you be ready? Take ACT score reports as valuable opportunities to look into yourself.  

Good luck on your ACT test!