What Is a Good ACT Score? – Tips to Improve Your ACT Score

A score of 36 is the highest possible score on ACT, and any score from 30 and above is considered excellent. But how rare are scores of 34, 35, or 36? Let's take a look at what makes a good ACT score and how many test-takers achieve these scores each year. This article will also share tips to help you improve your ACT score.

How Many People Score in the Top 1% on the ACT?

In 2020, 1,670,497 people took the ACT. The average ACT score was 20.6 out of 36. This means that a score of 21 or higher is above average. But if we consider 21 and above as good scores (since they're above average), what would be considered an amazing ACT score?

To find out, let's look at ACT percentiles. For example, achieving an ACT score of 34 or higher puts you in the top 1% of all test-takers.

But exactly how many students achieved ACT scores of 33, 34, 35, or 36 in 2018? And which score is the rarest? Let's see:

Source: ACT 2020 National Profile Report

A score of 36 is the rarest-only 0.334% of all test-takers achieve a perfect ACT score.

The next highest score is 35; however, this is still an extremely rare score that only 0.961% of test-takers achieve.

Notice that the number of students scoring 34 is about four times higher than those scoring 36. Now you can see why a 36 is so impressive. This score makes a real difference, especially for the most competitive schools.

How Many People Score in the Top 10% on the ACT?

You can see that a score of 29 or higher places you in the top 10%. So if 21 and above is good and 33 and above is amazing, then a score of 29 and above would be an outstanding ACT score.

Here's the breakdown of ACT scores from 29 to 32:

Source: ACT 2020 National Profile Report

You can see why increasing your ACT score by just a few points can have a huge impact on your chances of admission! Since admissions officers compare you to other applicants, the more unique and exceptional you make yourself, the higher your chances of acceptance. And the higher your ACT score, the rarer you become.

What ACT Score Should You Aim For?

We've established how impressive a top 10% ACT score is and how rare a top 1% score is. But what score should you target? Should you strive for a 36?

The best way to determine your target ACT score is to look at the average scores of students admitted to the schools you're applying to. By doing this, you'll know exactly what ACT score you need to stand out among other applicants.

Here's what you should do:

• If you're scoring below 20, aim to reach at least 21. This will place you in the 50th percentile and significantly strengthen your college application.
• If you're scoring between 22-27, even though you're above average, retake the ACT and aim for 29. Breaking into the top 10% of scorers can open up many scholarship opportunities and make your college application much more impressive.
• If you're scoring 29 or higher, increasing your score by even just 2 or 3 points can dramatically boost your percentile ranking. For example, going from 30 to 33 will move you from the 8th percentile to the 1st percentile!
• Once you reach 33 or higher, you have a competitive score. Again, increasing your ACT score by just a few points can make a significant difference in your admission chances!

The truth is that you can absolutely improve your ACT score, as long as you study consistently and focus on your weak areas. By doing this, you could realistically go from 17 to 25, 20 to 28, or even 25 to 35.

For example: you really struggle with plane geometry and get every single question on this topic wrong. Since plane geometry makes up about 20% of all math problems, it significantly impacts your overall score.

Don't let these types of questions keep you from achieving a high score!

Now imagine your ACT Math score is 23. If you study plane geometry and get just five more questions correct, you could score 26. If you get all plane geometry questions right and everything else stays the same, you could score 28 on ACT Math.

If you can identify your weak areas and address them by applying some ACT score improvement tips, boosting your score by a few points is definitely achievable.

4 Tips to Improve Your ACT Score

Now that you know what score you need to achieve your goals, let's review some helpful tips to improve your ACT score.

Focus on Your Weak Areas

As we briefly discussed above, focusing on your biggest weak areas should be one of your top priorities when preparing for the ACT. To address your weak areas, you should:

• Focus on improving weak subject areas. There are many quality resources available for practice that will give you plenty of opportunities to refine your skills.
• Spend more time on your weak areas than on skills and question types where you already feel confident. This way, you won't waste time reviewing concepts you already know.
• Analyze your mistakes. A good way to do this is to keep an error log where you record all the mistakes you make on practice questions, what the correct answer is, and how to solve them correctly.

These approaches not only help you identify your weak areas but also change how you approach ACT question types so you can score higher.

Adjust Your Pacing

Don't expect to improve your score if you don't know how to pace yourself properly. Learning to manage your time wisely is crucial for doing well on the ACT.

As you may already know, each section has a different time limit. Therefore, the time you have for each question will vary.

Here's an overview of the time you'll have for each section and each question on the ACT:

You'll have the longest time per question in the Math section and the shortest time per question in the English section. If you're not aiming for a perfect score, you can afford to guess on at least a few questions in each section without significantly impacting your score.

Learn Official ACT Test-Taking Strategies

There are many strategies you should know before taking the ACT. Basic ACT score improvement tips include:

• How to approach and understand questions quickly
• How to effectively use the information provided to you
• How to make educated guesses and increase your odds of getting them right

Our guide on top ACT test strategies covers some of the most useful tips to know for test day. However, in brief, here are some of the most important ones:

• How to use the process of elimination
• When to plug in answer choices and plug in numbers for math problems
• How to read passages in the Reading, English, and Science sections

Take ACT Practice Tests

You should practice with official tests because they provide a highly realistic experience. Plus, they're all free!

In terms of preparation, try to take practice tests throughout your ACT study plan. Take one at the beginning of your study schedule to assess your baseline score, then take several more throughout your preparation. Essentially, you'll use practice tests to identify your weak and strong areas.

Make sure to take tests in a quiet environment. Also, give yourself the same time constraints as the official ACT time limits described above. This will build your stamina so you don't run out of energy during the actual test.

Bích Chiêu – Clever Academy

Clever Academy offers comprehensive training programs for all standardized certification exams mentioned above. Visit https://cleveracademy.vn/khoa-hoc/ for more details.

Learn more about the ACT course at Clever Academy: https://cleveracademy.vn/courses/act/