What is a good ACT score?
What is a good score on the ACT test? Sure, you would like to have a higher rating, as it gives you more opportunities to enter the college or university you want. However, it is also good to know what influences your score and which grade is okay.
What Are Good ACT Scores in Comparison with the National Average Scores?
So what are good ACT scores? First and foremost, it is a compound sum of several different factors. Specifically, you should get a good ACT Composite Score, ACT Subscores, and ACT Percentiles. Let’s see what does each of these mean:
ACT Percentiles
This result compares your scores to those of other applicants. For instance, if you scored in the 70th percentile, it means that you passed the exam better than 70% of students, which is pretty good.
ACT Composite Score
It is your average result in all the sections. This result is scored via the 1-36 scale.
ACT Subscores
It is the result you get for each section separately. The number of questions you answered correctly is converted to the 1-36 scale. In fact, you can google a score calculator to check if your result is correct.
As you see, there are a lot of details that contribute to your good ACT score.
What is your ACT Score in Comparison with Typical Scores at Target Schools
Different institutions may have different good act composite scores, meaning that for some universities, it is enough to have an average result, while others require very high results. Therefore, the students should spend some time and examine the average scores of the schools they are going to apply to.
The best way to do this is to search for the middle 50% scores for the top-ranked universities. Keep in mind that the passing score of the educational institution is higher for prestigious schools. And it is obvious that many students want to apply to this university together with you.
You may want to create your table with the score range you are targeting. First, select several schools you like and find their average scores. Then, you can figure out what your minimum and maximum ratings are.
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How is the ACT Scored?
Finally, how is the ACT scored? The administration uses a 1-36 scale to score every section. All in all, there are four sections, which are Science, Reading, English, and Math. The administration will provide the score results for each part separately.
Note that no one will penalize you for the wrong answers. Thus, if you don’t know the answer to the question, you may guess and win. You better not leave the blank spaces in your paper. However, let’s not think about the negative things, stay positive, and prepare well to get the highest scores!
Explore what is a Good ACT Score within this Chart
The ACT exam is scored out of 36 points. Setting your ACT score goals for 2020, look at the score averages for your target schools for applying. Overall, the average ACT score is 21, so a score of 23 or above is considered to be a good score. Explore ACT score ranges in the top 10%, top 25%, top 50%, and below that:
What are the best ACT scores?
About 10% of the best results among all test takers are within:
What are the competitive ACT scores?
About 25% of the best results among all test takers are within:
What is a good ACT scores?
About 50% of the best results among all test takers are within:
What is a bad ACT scores?
The ACT scores seem to be bad when they are below average compared to all test takers. But, usually, it is enough for getting into a wide variety of college programs:
ACT Score Ranges for Popular Colleges and Universities(2021)
Here is what was a good ACT Scores for the Popular Schools including Ivy League (2019) for comparison
Here is an ACT score chart with the 25th-75th percentile composite ACT scores(2019) for the 35 most popular schools.