About the ACT Scoring System

ACT Scoring Overview

ACT score reports pack in a lot of information about how a student performed. Test-takers receive a score for each multiple-choice section, a composite score, a separate Writing score if they sat for the essay, reporting category scores, percentile rankings at the state and national levels, and College Readiness Benchmark indicators. Let's look at each of these in turn.

ACT Section and Composite Scores; Raw Scores and Composite Scores

Each multiple-choice section is reported on a scale of 1 to 36, in whole numbers only. English, Math, and Reading are the three required sections; Science is an optional add-on that uses the same 1-to-36 scale but is reported on its own. These are "scaled scores," which ACT works out from the number of correct answers, or "raw score." Scaling adjusts for small differences in difficulty from one version of the test to the next, so the same raw score can translate into slightly different scaled scores across administrations. On one form, for instance, a student might need every one of the 45 Math questions right to earn a perfect 36, while on another, 44 correct answers would reach the same mark. The composite score, sometimes called the total score, is the average of the three required sections (English, Math, and Reading are added together and divided by three), rounded to the nearest whole number. Science and Writing never factor into the composite. Because every question in these sections is multiple choice, scoring is handled by computer.

ACT Writing Scores

The Writing section, also optional, has its own scoring system and never counts toward the composite. Two trained readers score the essay in four domains—Ideas & Analysis, Development & Support, Organization, and Language Use & Conventions—rating each on a 1-to-6 scale. Because two readers score every domain, each domain lands somewhere from 2 to 12; the four domain scores are then averaged to produce the total Writing score, likewise on a 2-to-12 scale. If the two readers differ by more than a point on any domain, a third reader steps in.

ACT Reporting Category Scores

Each multiple-choice section also breaks performance down into reporting categories tied to specific skills. English, for example, has three: Production of Writing, Knowledge of Language, and Conventions of Standard English. A reporting category score is simply the number of correct answers out of the total for that category, also shown as a percentage (say, 6 of 12 Production of Writing questions, or 50%). Math carries eight reporting categories, while Reading and Science have three apiece—and because Science is optional, its categories appear only when a student takes that section. Reading adds one more measure, Understanding Complex Texts, the single category not reported as a number correct: here a student is rated "Below," "Proficient," or "Above." Adding the category counts back together gives a student's raw score for each section.

ACT Percentile Rankings and College Readiness Benchmarks

Percentile rankings let students see how their results stack up against their peers, both in their home state and nationwide. They are reported at the state and national levels for the composite along with Math, Science, STEM, English, Reading, Writing, and ELA. The STEM figure combines a student's Math and Science scores, and the ELA figure combines English, Reading, and Writing—so STEM appears only when Science is taken, and ELA only when the essay is taken. ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks mark the score at which a student has roughly a 50% chance of earning a B or better, and about a 75% chance of a C or better, in the matching first-year college course. The current benchmarks are 18 (English), 22 (Math), 22 (Reading), 23 (Science), 20 (ELA), and 26 (STEM); there is no benchmark for the composite. Score reports chart a student's results against each of these. Reporting categories also display an "ACT Readiness Range," the band of scores typical of students who met the benchmark for that section. Keep in mind that the benchmarks are broad averages and won't necessarily match the difficulty of any particular course at a specific college.

ACT Score Reporting Procedures

ACT posts scores to students' online accounts on a rolling basis, generally within two to eight weeks of the test date; about 97% of multiple-choice scores are available within one to four weeks. Writing scores typically follow roughly two weeks after the multiple-choice results. Online accounts are where students see their scores—ACT does not release them by phone, email, or fax.