Self-Administering an ACT

Scoring Instructions

1) Once you have completed the four sections of the test, identify how many correct answers you have for each section of the test. Correct answers can be found on the "Scoring Keys" that follow the main sections of the test on the Preparing for the ACT booklets. For the Preparing for the ACT 2018-2020 booklet, these scoring keys can be found on pages 57 through 59. An example of what the English Scoring Key looks like follows.

2) While the booklets give more detailed scoring directions that include several subscores, these are unnecessary. So, on the scoring key above, for example, you can ignore all of the different "Reporting Categories". Simply count the number of correct answers for each section of the test: English, Math, Reading, and Writing.

3) Next, convert the number of correct answers you have for each section, which is called your raw score, into a score that ranges from 1 to 36, called your scaled score using Table 1. Table 1 can be found on page 70 of the Preparing for the ACT 2018-2020 booklet, for example. Please note that each test will have a different Table 1, but an example of what it looks like follows.

4) If you had 63 correct answers (raw score) in the English Test, for example, your score (scaled score) for English is 28. Determine your scaled score for each of the different sections of the test: English, Math, Reading, and Science.

5) Your overall ACT score on the ACT will be the average of your scores scaled on the 1-36 range. You should round your average to the nearest whole number. If that decimal is 0.5 or higher, you should round your score up. If it’s lower than 0.5, however, you should round down.