Nov 25, 2021 · Your ACT score percentile is not like a grade out of 100; rather, it's a comparison between you and other students. For example, if you get in the 70th percentile, this means you scored the same as or higher than 70% of test takers. It doesn't mean you got exactly 70% of the test questions correct. (In fact, the ACT is tricky enough that if you ...
Nov 24, 2021 · This means that scores of 35 and 36 both map to 99th percentile, and, while a 34 maps to 98th percentile, you can't be sure whether that means 98.9 or more like 97.5. For many purposes, two digits just doesn't give you enough precision. For example, if you score a 36 on the ACT, that means only fewer than 4,000 other students did as well as you ...
Dec 12, 2015 · However, the ACT score ranges for your target colleges are more important than your percentile ranking. The ACT score range for colleges is the range in which the middle 50% of admitted students’ ACT scores fall. For example, Yale’s ACT score range is 31-35. This means 25% of admitted students scored below a 31, and 75% scored below a 35.
Apr 09, 2018 · That means looking at the admissions states for your dream school. The ACT score range is broken into the middle 50% score, meaning 25% score higher than this middle 50% and 25% score lower than the 50% range score. To be admitted into the school of your choice, you want to fall above the middle 50% score range (also equals the 75th percentile when compared …
A perfect score on the ACT is 36. Most students assume that because 36 is the highest possible ACT score (both composite and individual), it's a “good” ACT score. Yet while a 36 will definitely add a competitive edge to an application, anything less than a 36 isn't necessarily a bad ACT score.Feb 4, 2021
Is a 17 a good ACT score? A score of 17 is pretty low. It places you in the bottom 31st percentile nationally out of the 2 million test takers of the ACT entrance exam. The score indicates you've done a well below average job answering the questions on the English, Math, Reading and Science sections of the test.
Step 2: Convert Your Raw Scores Into Scaled ScoresScale ScoreEnglishScale Score2761-62272659-60262556-58252453-552432 more rows•Feb 1, 2020
The 50th percentile would represent the median ACT score, which can be used to estimate an “average” score—so approximately 20–21 on the composite and for each of the subtest scores.Jul 30, 2020
The ACT format is distributed in four sections - English, Math, Reading and Science....ACT Composite Score Percentile Distribution.ACT Composite ScoreACT Composite Percentile34-3699-10031-3395-9828-3080-9325-2778-855 more rows•4 days ago
83th to 85th percentileWith a score of 26, you are in the 83th to 85th percentile of all test takers. More likely than not, with a score of 26, you'll often be in or near the commonly accepted range at selective colleges.
A score of 19 is a little worse than average. It places you in the bottom 44th percentile nationally out of the 2 million test takers of the ACT entrance exam. The score indicates you've done a slightly below average job answering the questions on the English, Math, Reading and Science sections of the test.
Because of all this, a 30 ACT score is definitely considered good! To help you understand your standing within all test takers, a score of 30 on the ACT puts you at the 93rd percentile, meaning you scored higher than 93% of all test takers.
“If you have a 36 on your ACT and think you're going to walk into Harvard, it's not the case.” As recently as five years ago, Stanford was rejecting about 69 percent of applicants with perfect SAT scores. And those scores don't come easily.Apr 2, 2018
97th percentileAll that considered, yes, 32 is a good ACT score. To show you just how good, we have to look at the percentiles. A 32 ACT score puts you at the 97th percentile — that means you scored higher than 97% all test takers!
ACT Scoring and What Makes a Good Composite ScoreScore:Ranking:Rating:1 - 19Below AveragePoor20 - 25AverageGood26 - 29Above AverageCompetitive30 - 35HighestBest1 more row
95th percentileLooking at this from another angle, a score of 31 on the ACT puts you at the 95th percentile — that means you scored higher than 95% of all test takers. Additionally, a 31 is within the range of scores that elite and extremely selective colleges accept on average. Congratulations!
Your percentile ranking is a comparison of your ACT score with everyone else who took the test. Specifically, your percentile tells you how many pe...
Now that you know about percentile rankings, it’s helpful to know what the ACT’s percentiles actually are, both for composite scores and individual...
ACT subscores give you more detail about your performance on the ACT and what specific areas you can improve on.However, as of late 2016, ACT, Inc....
Percentile rankings are important because they help colleges compare your ACT performance with those of other test takers. But the ACT score ranges...
Do you want to know your exact ACT score up to six digits of precision? Every digit can help when you want to know your exact performance. I've used real ACT data, newly-released in 2020, to calculate these ultra-high-precision percentiles.
If you'd like to review what ACT percentiles are, check out this excellent article that clearly explains them. Put simply, your ACT percentile ranking lets you know how well you did compared to other test takers. If you got a 55 percentile (sometimes spelled %ile), that means you scored better than 55% of students who took the ACT.
Most charts, including ones developed directly by the ACT, only have two digits of precision when they give percentiles. This means that scores of 35 and 36 both map to 99th percentile, and, while a 34 maps to 98th percentile, you can't be sure whether that means 98.9 or more like 97.5.
The data in the ACT score report covers ACT scores from 2015 through 2020, and during this time percentiles have not changed much at all. Therefore, this data can be used to analyze ACT scores from the past several years.
Want to start prepping for the ACT but aren't sure where to start? Check out these 5 tips on preparing for the ACT.
Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!
The ACT score range for colleges is the range in which the middle 50% of admitted students’ ACT scores fall. For example, Yale’s ACT score range is 31-35. This means 25% of admitted students scored below a 31, and 75% scored below a 35.
However, with the percentiles, the colleges know a 33 is a 99th percentile score, meaning you scored better than 99% of test-takers, which is excellent. Percentiles allow colleges to get a sense of how test-takers do on the ACT and compare you to the rest of the country. However, the ACT score ranges for your target colleges are more important ...
Your ACT score percentile rank is a metric that compares your ACT score with everyone else who took that test administration.
For example, if your test ranking is in the 70th percentile, that means you individually scored the same as or higher than 70% of your fellow test-takers. It doesn’t automatically mean that you correctly answered exactly 70% of the test questions.
Now that you know about percentile rankings, let’s go over what the ACT percentiles actually are, both for composite scores and individual section scores.
Colleges use percentiles to compare applicants against each other during application season.
Simply put, ACT percentiles compare your scores to all the other scores of test takers so that you know how many students you did better than and worse than on the same ACT test day.
You do not need to do much digging to find your ACT percentiles after taking the ACT. The ACT will provide you with your individual ACT percentiles for your composite score, the four individual sections, as well as the subscores for each section.
As the name implies, your US rank is the comparison between you and all other test takers in the USA. The State Rank compares you against only test takers from that day in your state. Some college admissions actually care more about your State Rank than your US Rank.
The ACT sub scores you can see in this score report show you specific types of questions you did better and worse than other students.
There is no magic ACT percentile that’s guaranteed to admit you into your dream school, but there is a range of ACT percentiles you want to aim for. The ACT score range for the school you are applying to should be more important than your State and US Percentile ranking. That means looking at the admissions states for your dream school.
This means that, for example, a student scoring a 20 on the ACT (composite) has scored higher than about 49% of all test takers and about 7% of all test-takers scored a 20 (56 – 49 = 7).
Obviously, a higher score is better, but what qualifies as “good”? The answer is, of course, that it depends. It’s important to keep in mind that your ACT score is just one factor that is used in college admissions decisions.
If you have a low GPA, you’ll need to be even higher. To some people, a 25 is a great score.
Scores range from 1-36, and the average ACT score in 2020 is 20.6. There are four separate sections, and the average score across these sections actually varies pretty substantially. The average score on the English Test is 19.9; the average score on the Mathematics Test is 20.2; the average score on the Reading Test is 21.2; the average score on the Science Test is 20.6.#N#Okay, so those are the averages. But what’s a good score? What’s a bad one? What kind of score will make you cry? Those are much tougher questions to answer. A good place to start is a few key score percentiles from our chart above:#N#99th Percentile: 34#N#A 34 is a really, really high score. It's only two points away from a perfect score, but it's still a feat that is accomplished by 1-in-100 test takers. It's also right around the average score for most Ivy Leaguers, so if you have Ivy ambitions, you better start studying.#N#90th Percentile: 29#N#This is still an extremely high score (better than 90% of students). It's also pretty close to the average at a lot of competitive colleges that are not Ivy League schools. There are plenty of good schools with lower average scores, so don't fret if a 29 isn't in the ballpark for you.#N#75th Percentile: 24#N#This is a good score, and it is within striking distance for a student who starts with an average score of 20-21. If you’re sitting at a 24, you’re better off than three out of four students, so even if it isnt a 34 or a 29, it’s still pretty good. This kind of score will make most students competitive at a lot of quality flagship state universities and many private schools. Increasingly, though, top-tier state universities are above this mark.#N#That gives us a starting point to understand what counts as a good ACT score. But what about a good score for you?
There are 75 questions on the English Test, and you will have 45 minutes to complete the section. The maximum score is 36, and the average score is 19.9. This will be the first section on the ACT, and each question has four answer choices.
Whether an ACT score is good or bad depends on the university you want to attend, so let’s look at what types of colleges have average ACT scores in various ranges:#N#34: The best universities in the world, including Harvard, Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT and Princeton.# N#31-33: Almost-Ivies, like UC-Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, UCLA and Notre Dame. #N#27-30: Tons of good private and public universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, University of Florida, George Washington University and Pepperdine.#N#25-26: This is probably the most common range for quality state universities, including the University of Colorado, University of Missouri, University of Arizona and Texas A&M. There are also many quality private schools in this range, including TCU and Syracuse.#N#22-24: Broad range of schools, including flagship state universities like Ole Miss and quality second-tier state universities like the University of Illinois-Chicago and UC-Riverside.#N#Below 21: There are actually quite a few universities in this category, including tons of non-flagship state universities and a lot of small private colleges. Some examples include University of Texas -- El Paso, Humboldt State and San Francisco State.#N#What can you gather from this? Three things:#N#1. There’s a school to match your ACT score. Quality universities can be found up and down this list, so you’re not destined to a life on the streets if you end up with a 21.#N#2. Three points can make a HUGE difference. A 29 can put you at UT-Austin, which is a top-10 public school in America. The 26 can put you at some good schools, but nothing of that caliber.#N#3. The best schools are really, really competitive. If you were to line a hundred students up, on average, only one would be seriously competitive at schools in the first group. Even for the second group, only a few students would have a real chance.#N#ACT scores at competitive universities have gotten really, really tight.
No, probably not! Your ACT scores are just one part of your college preparation, and they don't say anything great about you as a person. The biggest indicator of your potential for success in college is your willingness to put in the work. While it is a good idea to get the best score you can, which will allow you to get into the college of your choice, don't fret if you end up with a less-than-stellar score. Plenty of successful people didn't do well on the ACT.
That is true to some extent, but test scores and GPA/class rank still remain, by far, the two largest factors in college admissions.
A good plan is one that leads you up to a specific test date and also features weekly goals for the amount of time you should spend on prep. Use your practice tests to track your progress toward your goal and determine where this time should be spent.
The 75th percentile score means 75% of admits received an ACT score at or below that number (and 25% of admits scored higher). The average ACT score is simply the average of all admitted students’ ACT scores.
To achieve your target score, you need to have a clear plan of attack . If you need significant improvement to meet your target score, you should think about taking an ACT prep class, hiring an ACT tutor , or using an online ACT program such as PrepScholar .
A safety school is a school that you're almost certain you'll be accepted to with the ACT score and GPA you have now.
A percentile is a term used in statistics to express how a score compares to other scores in the same set. While there is technically no standard definition of percentile, it's typically communicated as the percentage of values that fall below a particular value in a set of data scores.
Percentiles can also be used to split your dataset into portions to measure dispersion and identify the average of the values (known as the central tendency). Certain meaningful percentiles are referred to by their own terms.
They are: Greater than: The kth percentile is the lowest score in a data set that is greater than a percentage (k) of the scores. For example, if k = .25, you'd be trying to identify the lowest score that is greater than 25% of scores in the data set.
Values that split the data set into quarters based on percentiles. The first quartile is referred to as Q1 or the lower quartile . This value is the 25th percentile, in which the lower quarter of the values fall below the 25th percentile while three quarters are above it.
The second quartile, or Q2, is the value at the 50th percentile. This is the median of the data set. Q3, the third quartile, is referred to as the 'upper quartile' and is the value of the 75th percentile, meaning only 25% of values in the set are above this value.