What is a Good ACT Score? All You Need to Know About ACT Score Range & Test Prep

Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

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What counts as a good ACT score?

ACT gives a direct answer on its own score guide: “a good ACT score is one that meets or exceeds the average score of students admitted to the colleges you’re applying to.” That puts the emphasis where it belongs — on your list, not on a national number — and it leaves three yardsticks worth measuring against.

• Against the country. The average composite was 19.4 in 2024. Useful context, almost no predictive value for any specific college.
• Against college readiness. ACT’s subject benchmarks predict your odds of passing real first-year courses. This is the closest thing to an absolute floor, and it is per-section rather than composite.
• Against your list. The middle-50% range of admitted students at the colleges you are applying to. The only yardstick that decides anything.

What the ACT composite actually measures now

This has changed, and it changes how you should read every older scoring guide including our own previous version of this page. Under the enhanced ACT introduced from April 2025:

• Your Composite is the average of English, Math and Reading only, rounded to the nearest whole number. ACT states this on its score guide, and notes that fractions below one-half round down while one-half or more round up.
• Science is optional. ACT lists section scores as English, Math, Reading and Science (optional). Sitting Science gives you a Science section score and makes a STEM score possible, but it does not move your Composite.
• Writing is optional and scored 2–12 across four domains — Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. Your writing score is the rounded average of those four, it does not affect your Composite, and ACT puts the national average between 6 and 7.

The practical consequence is that a “good” composite is now built from three sections rather than four, so a weak section carries a third of the weight rather than a quarter. If your Math is dragging, it is dragging harder than it used to. Whether to sit Science at all is a separate decision driven by your target programs: science and engineering departments may want to see it, and it is required for a STEM score.

The average ACT score, and what it hides

ACT’s published figure is 19.4 for 2024 graduates. Two caveats make that number less useful than it first looks. The pool includes every student who sat the test, among them large numbers taking it in school under state mandates rather than by choice, which pulls the average down relative to the self-selected group applying to selective colleges. And the composite now rests on three sections rather than four, so year-over-year comparisons across the 2025 transition are not strictly like-for-like.

Use 19.4 to answer “am I above average?” and nothing else. For “will this get me in?”, skip to the benchmarks and your own college list.

ACT score ranges and percentiles

The ACT is scored 1–36, and 36 is both the maximum composite and the maximum for each individual section. Percentiles shift slightly by test year, so treat these as bands.

ACT also publishes its own plain-language bands, which are worth seeing because they are the test-maker’s framing rather than a third party’s:

Two honest notes on ACT’s own table. Its published bands overlap at 20 and leave a gap between 28 and 30, so they are indicative rather than precise. And the description ACT prints against its 30–36 row duplicates the text from its 18–20 row, which is evidently an error on ACT’s page — we have described that band accurately rather than reproduce the mistake.

ACT’s College and Career Readiness Benchmarks

These are the numbers ACT publishes, they are the most useful on this page, and almost no scoring guide quotes them. A benchmark is the section score at which ACT’s research says you have a 50% chance of earning a B or higher, and about a 75 to 80% chance of earning a C or higher, in the corresponding credit-bearing first-year college course.

ACT derived these from a sample of 214 institutions and more than 230,000 students, and describes them as the median course-placement values across those institutions. What makes them more actionable than a percentile is that they are per-subject: a composite of 22 built on English 26 and Math 18 clears the English benchmark and misses Math by four points, which tells you exactly what to work on and warns you that you may be placed into a non-credit-bearing math course in your first semester.

Note that the benchmarks are not evenly spaced. English at 18 sits below the national average composite, while Science at 23 and STEM at 26 sit well above it. A student at exactly 19.4 is, on ACT’s own research, likely ready for college English and not yet ready for college algebra or biology.

What score do you need for your target school?

The bands below are typical middle-50% ranges — the 25th to 75th percentile of admitted students, which is what colleges themselves report.

Read them the way admissions officers do. A quarter of admitted students sit below the 25th percentile by definition, so being under a range is not disqualifying; being over it is not an offer. ACT’s own position on the floor is useful here: there is no universal minimum, and many colleges accept students scoring between 18 and 20, particularly less selective and open-admission schools.

Then replace our table with real numbers. Every college publishes the ACT range of its admitted students on its admissions site. Looking up six to ten schools takes about twenty minutes and gives you the only targets that actually apply to you.

Is your score good enough? Quick answers

Is 16–19 a good ACT score?

It is just below the 19.4 national average, and on ACT’s own benchmarks it clears English at 18 while falling short on Math, Reading and Science. Workable at open-admission and many regional colleges. This is also the band where preparation returns most, because the percentile curve is steepest here — a three-point gain moves you further up the national distribution than a three-point gain at 30 would.

Is 20–23 a good ACT score?

Above average, roughly the 50th to 73rd percentile, and inside the band ACT describes as competitive at many mid-tier colleges. At the top of this range you are meeting the Math and Reading benchmarks of 22. Competitive at a wide set of state universities, and a strong GPA does real work at schools whose range starts around 24.

Is 24–27 a good ACT score?

Yes — roughly the 74th to 87th percentile, and ACT itself calls 24–28 a strong score for more selective colleges. Solid at state flagships and many private universities. This is the range where one weak section is usually the whole story, so a targeted retake under superscoring is the efficient move rather than broad revision.

Is 28–30 a good ACT score?

Strong: about the 88th to 94th percentile. Competitive at selective schools and in range for many top-50 universities. A 30 also clears every subject benchmark including STEM at 26, which matters if you are applying to engineering or science programs.

Is 31+ a good ACT score?

Excellent. From 31 you are in the top 5% or so, and 34–36 is the top 1%, which puts you in range at the most selective universities in the country. At this level the score has stopped being your constraint and the rest of the application is doing the deciding.

Superscoring, and why it changes your retake math

ACT defines your Superscore as the average of your highest section scores across all your ACT test dates. Where a college uses it, retaking is genuinely low-risk: your existing best sections stay on the board, so you can walk into a sitting concentrating on the one section that is holding your composite down.

That is a different strategy from trying to peak on everything at once, and under the three-section composite it is more powerful than it used to be — lifting one of three sections moves the composite more than lifting one of four did. The catch is that superscoring is a college-by-college policy, not an automatic one. A college that only considers your best single test date gives you no credit for the approach. Check the testing-policy page for each school on your list before you book anything.

Work out your own target score in five steps

A national average cannot tell you what to aim at. This can, in about half an hour.

• 1. List your colleges, safeties included. Six to ten is workable.
• 2. Record each one’s 25th and 75th percentile ACT scores from its admissions site. Keep both numbers, not the midpoint.
• 3. Take the highest 75th percentile on your list as your composite target. Clear that and you are at or above the range everywhere else.
• 4. Split it into section goals and check them against the benchmarks — 18 English, 22 Math, 22 Reading, 23 Science. If a section goal falls below its benchmark, raise it; the benchmark is the floor whatever your colleges report.
• 5. Sit one full-length official practice test under real timing. The gap between that and your section goals is the actual size of the job, and it tells you whether free practice will close it.

How to raise your ACT score

Start with ACT’s own free material, which is more substantial than most students realize and costs nothing. ACT publishes a free study guide, study tips, video lessons and a full-length official ACT online exam through its student learning resources.

One correction worth flagging, because this page previously recommended it and a great many guides still do: ACT Academy has been retired. Its old address now redirects to ACT’s general learning-resources page. If a study plan points you at ACT Academy, it was written before the change — use ACT’s current free test-prep page instead. For strategy rather than materials, we cover the section-by-section approach in our ACT tips guide.

What the paid courses cost

Prices read from each provider on 11 September 2026. All three discount frequently, so check the live price — and note that the ACT versions of these courses are priced and guaranteed differently from the SAT versions, so do not assume they match.

The guarantees are the substance of what you are buying, and they are narrower than the headlines suggest. Kaplan promises a refund or free extension if your score does not rise, but states that its subscription products are excluded. Magoosh’s ACT guarantee is +4 points with a 7-day no-questions refund window. Prep Expert’s is 4 points, tied to its live class format and conditional on completing the course and its practice work. All three require you to actually finish the program, which is the condition most students fail rather than the score condition.

If you want live classes on a fixed timetable, Prep Expert is the one to compare. If you want the deepest content library and the most recognizable name, Kaplan is the default choice.

Check Kaplan’s current ACT pricing →

Frequently asked questions

What is the average ACT score?

ACT reports that the average ACT Composite score for graduating high school students was 19.4 in 2024. That figure is published on ACT’s own score guide and represents the average performance of all ACT test-takers in the United States, so it is the right number to measure yourself against nationally.

Does the ACT still have a Science section?

Science is now optional. Since the enhanced ACT rolled out from April 2025, ACT lists the section scores as English, Math, Reading and Science (optional), and states that your Composite is the average of your English, math and reading scores only. If you sit Science it produces its own score and feeds the STEM score, but it does not change your Composite. Guides that describe the ACT as a four-section test with Science in the composite are describing the pre-2025 exam.

Is 24 a good ACT score?

Yes. A 24 is comfortably above the national average of 19.4 and sits in the band ACT itself labels as a strong score for more selective colleges. It also clears every one of ACT’s subject benchmarks except Science at the section level, depending on how your sections break down.

What are the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks?

They are the section scores ACT says you need for a 50% chance of earning a B or higher, and about a 75 to 80% chance of a C or higher, in the matching first-year college course. They are English 18, Mathematics 22, Reading 22, Science 23, plus 26 for the STEM score and 20 for the ELA score. ACT based them on a sample of 214 institutions and more than 230,000 students.

What is an ACT superscore?

ACT defines your Superscore as the average of your highest section scores across all of your ACT test dates. Many colleges use it, which makes retaking lower-risk: you can go into a sitting focused on one section without putting your existing best scores at risk. Policies vary, so confirm on each college’s own testing page.

What is the lowest ACT score colleges will accept?

ACT’s own answer is that there is no universal minimum, and that many colleges accept students with ACT scores between 18 and 20, particularly at less selective or open-admission schools. ACT also notes that scores are one part of a review that includes GPA, coursework rigor, activities, essays and recommendations.

Do STEM and ELA scores matter?

They can, for specific programs. ACT reports a STEM score, the average of your math and science scores, and an ELA score, the average of English, reading and writing where the writing test was taken. Engineering and science programs sometimes look at STEM specifically, and ACT publishes separate benchmarks for both: 26 for STEM and 20 for ELA.

Is the ACT easier than the SAT?

Neither is easier in any objective sense. The ACT gives you less time per question and now has an optional Science section excluded from the composite. The SAT is digital and section-adaptive, with a calculator permitted throughout the Math. The reliable way to choose is to sit one official practice test of each under real timing and compare how you actually perform.

Related guides

• ACT to SAT conversion — convert an ACT composite to its SAT equivalent using the official 2018 tables.
• What is a good SAT score? — the same three yardsticks on the 400–1600 scale.
• SAT vs ACT — which test suits you, with the current structure of both.
• ACT tips and strategies — section-by-section approach built on ACT’s own advice.
• ACT test dates — every 2026–27 national date with registration deadlines and fees.
• How long is the ACT? — section timing and breaks on the enhanced test.