You studied your hardest, you took the ACT, and now you are waiting to receive your scores.
While you wait, you might be wondering how your scores are calculated in the first place. With a maximum composite score of 36, but almost six times as many questions on the test, the ACT scoring process might seem complicated.
In order to help you see how your scores were calculated and determine whether or not you should consider retaking the ACT, I’m sharing the ACT grading scale and some helpful information about ACT scoring:
ACT raw scores
When you take the ACT, you will receive a point for every question that you answer correctly. These points translate into a raw score for each section: English, Math, Reading, and Science.
Your raw score for each section of the ACT is then converted into a score between 1-36 using the ACT score chart. While this chart will differ from test administration to test administration, the ACT provides this information to help you get an idea of how your raw score will translate into scores for each section:
|Scale Score||English Raw Score||Math Raw Score||Reading Raw Score||Science Raw Score|
ACT composite scores
Once you have determined your ACT score based on your raw scores for each section, you will have everything you need to figure out your ACT composite score.
The composite score is simply the average of the four scores for each section. Add your scores together and divide them by four. Make sure to round your score up to the next whole number!
So for instance, if you scored a 26 on the ACT Reading section, a 28 on English, a 31 on Math, and a 32 on Science, you will end up with a composite score of 30.
Improving your score on the ACT
Once you have learned how to calculate your ACT scores, you might realize that you want to take the ACT again and improve your composite score.
Prep Expert can help. Prep Expert offers high-quality private tutoring and ACT prep courses where you can learn strategies from expert teachers who scored in the top 1% on the test. Learn more about how Prep Expert can help you earn a high score on the ACT when you visit our website.