ACT scoring

Scoring the ACT takes three steps: count the right answers in each section, convert each count to a scale score, then average the three scale scores. Only the middle step is hard to reproduce outside the test.

Raw score: rights only

Each correct answer is worth one point and a wrong answer is worth the same as a blank, so the only way a guess can hurt you is by costing the seconds you spent on it. When the clock is nearly out, fill in every remaining bubble.

Scale scores

The raw score for English, Math and Reading is converted to a scale score from 1 to 36. ACT builds a separate conversion table for each form of the test so that a 28 means the same level of performance whichever form you took, which is why the same raw score can map to different scale scores on different test days.

The Composite

The Composite is the average of your English, Math and Reading scale scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.Science is optional and does not enter the Composite.

A section that is two points below the others pulls the Composite down by less than a point, so one weak section is not decisive on its own. Candidates who sit the test more than once can combine their best section scores into a superscore, and many universities consider it.

What a practice test can and cannot tell you

ACT does not publish conversion tables for unofficial tests, so any practice score is an estimate. The estimate on this site uses the shape of published tables, and it scores every question in the test, while the real test leaves some questions unscored. Use it to track progress from one practice test to the next, not as a prediction of your test day.