What should act scores be

Do you have a competitive ACT score? An elite ACT score? Or just a beginner ACT score? The ACT is very predictable. Download our free guide to improving your ACT score by 4 points. Note that these are the earliest possible dates for your ACT scores to come out. Many students have their scores delayed by a few days as ACT, Inc.

Don't be too alarmed if your test scores are delayed by a week or so. Beyond that point, though, it might be a good idea to call ACT, Inc.

ACT Writing scores usually come out about two weeks after your multiple-choice scores are released. ACT, Inc. If your test scores don't show up after this time on a particular day, you'll have to wait a whole day and then check if they come out the next day.

This information will hopefully help with your stress and keep you from compulsively checking for ACT scores throughout the day! After taking up to a week to process your score report request, ACT, Inc.

Colleges receive ACT score reports at least once every two weeks, but some schools get them more frequently. UVA has stated that it gets score reports electronically at least once a day—but gets scores even more frequently closer to application deadlines.

If you put down a school as one to receive one of your four free score reports , that school might even be able to see your ACT scores before you can depending on how frequently it gets scores from ACT, Inc. It's also important to note that ACT, Inc. So if you've taken the Writing section, your scores won't go out until your Writing scores, too, have been determined. Opting for a priority report instead of a regular score report shortens the initial processing time to two working days after your request and typically gets your ACT scores to schools three to four business days after your request has been processed.

Note that ACT, Inc. Unless you've gotten your ACT scores and have a college application deadline fewer than seven weeks away or three weeks for the ACT without Writing , ordering priority reporting isn't worth it. Once you log in, you'll see a list of the ACT test dates you have scores for:. You'll be taken to a screen on which you have to reenter your password for security's sake :.

Once you enter your password again, you'll be taken to a page with your ACT results. You may notice that section percentiles are a little different than the composite scale. However, the same general score distribution holds. We've discussed how your ACT score compares to all the other test-takers. But what's more important is what makes a good ACT score for you personally, based on the schools you are interested in.

If those were your goal scores, you wouldn't need a 29; aiming for a score a little above average in the range would be adequate. So, what makes a good ACT score for you is all relative, and mostly based on where you are trying to get into college. Of course, it's also worth noting that the higher your standardized test scores, the more likely you are to get offered merit scholarships.

We're going to focus primarily on figuring out the score you need for admission in this guide, but it's something to keep in mind. However, this won't help you so much at particularly selective institutions—they'll expect applicants with pretty high marks across the board. So how do you find out what makes for good ACT scores for the colleges you're interested in? In this section, we'll walk you through a quick five-step process for figuring out the best goal score for you.

To work through the following steps, we'll be filling out a worksheet for all the schools you're planning to apply to. Click here to download it , or click the image below. Fill in all the schools you're sure you want to apply to already in the leftmost column. If you don't know what schools you're aiming for yet, feel free to use ones that have been suggested to you, or schools that your friends are interested in.

I recommend that you take the time to research schools first, though, so that you have a realistic target score. Because your goal score should be targeted to the schools you are actually interested in applying to, the more accurate of an idea you have of the schools you want to apply to, the more accurate your goal score will be.

For University of Alabama, the 25th percentile score is So 23 would be a below average score for admitted students for U Alabama. The 75th percentile score for University of Alabama is So scoring at that level or above puts you in the top quarter of admits score-wise—a very competitive score! If you score at the 75th percentile for any school, you have a great chance at getting in assuming your other credentials are appropriate for the school.

If you're at the 25th percentile, you'll need to have a particularly strong application to boost your odds of getting in. For each school on your list, google the PrepScholar ACT score information and write down the 25th and 75th percentile scores in the appropriate row for that school on your goal score sheet. To calculate your target ACT goal score, look at the 75th percentile column. Find the highest score in that column. That's your composite score goal. If you score at the 75th percentile level for the most competitive school on your list, you'll be competitive at all your schools for test scores.

Another advantage of choosing a high goal score is that if you end up falling points short, it's not a huge deal because you'll still be competitive for most of your schools. You might be thinking—hey, wait! Why did I fill out that entire sheet if I was just going to pick the highest 75th percentile score? Well, the advantage of filling out all that information is that you now have it handy as a reference.

You'll be able to check your ACT score against all your schools of interest as soon as you have it! This will be a helpful conversation around your personal goals and how you want to achieve your target ACT score. Plus, they can help keep you accountable throughout the preparation process! This will keep your goal in mind, which will help keep you motivated to prepare.

To make determining your goal score a little easier, here is an ACT score chart with the 25thth percentile composite ACT test scores for for 35 popular schools.

I've also provided the acceptance rate and current U. News ranking to give you additional reference points as to how selective the school is.

Alternatively, you can search for the school's name with the phrase "ACT score range. For example, say you want to apply to Emory University. Emory reports enrolled students' ACT scores on its first-year profile page. This means you'll have a solid shot at getting into Emory if you earn at least a 35 on the ACT assuming the rest of your application is just as impressive.

Schools vary considerably in the kinds of ACT scores they look for in applicants. Less selective institutions tend to accept scores closer to the national average 21 , whereas more competitive universities often prefer scores in the range. All data is for the class of The ACT offers an optional Writing section , which requires students to write an essay describing their perspective on an issue.

You only need to complete this section if at least one of the schools you're applying to requires the essay. This score does not count toward your composite score and is reported separately. Two readers each assign your essay a grade on a scale of in four domains: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. These domain scores are then combined and averaged to give you a final Writing score out of Like the other ACT sections, the strength of your essay score depends on what percentile you place in.

The higher your score is above the 50th percentile, the more impressive your ACT Writing performance will look to colleges. Generally, a score of 8 or higher on the essay can be considered strong.