What Is a Good ACT Score in 2026? Find and Hit Your Goal Score

Depending on where you're applying for college, your American College Testing (ACT) score may be a part of your college application. But, there's no "passing score" on the ACT, so how do you know if your score is "good" or not?

Put simply, A good ACT score is one that strengthens your application and increases your chances of getting into the school of your choice. What a “good score” is, consequently, will largely depend on your target school and the overall strength of your application's other elements, such as your grade point average (GPA), extracurriculars, personal essays, and recommendations.

Identify your target ACT score based on your unique situation, and you’ll have a goal to reach for as you prepare for the exam. Read on to learn how the ACT is scored, find tips on how to identify a "good" ACT score for you, and explore ways to improve your score so that you can apply to college with confidence.

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How is the ACT scored?

Making sense of your ACT score can sometimes be confusing. To help you understand it, here's a quick overview of how the ACT is scored:

• The ACT includes four tests—English, math, reading, and science—each scored from 1 to 36. 

• Your composite ACT score will be the average of those four scores.

• The optional ACT writing test is scored from 2 to 12 and doesn’t impact your composite score.

• Your national rank indicates how your scores compare to those of other recent high school graduates.

As you're evaluating your ACT score, keep these factors in mind. By looking at this information carefully, you'll be able to identify your strengths and areas for potential improvement if you decide to take the ACT again.

What is a "good" ACT score? How to evaluate your score

There’s no passing score on the ACT, nor is there a standard that makes a score “good.” That said, you do have several ways to evaluate your score to give you a better sense of your overall performance. Nonetheless, remember that a good score for you and your academic goals might not be the same as for your friends and peers. Here are some ways that you can evaluate your ACT score relative to others:

National average ACT score

One way to evaluate your composite ACT score is by comparing it to the national average. For the 2024 graduating class in the US, the national average composite score was 19.4, for example [1]. This score may be higher or lower depending on the year. 

Rank and ACT Readiness Range

Your score report will also indicate a US and state rank. If your composite score ranks at 59 percent in your

state, for example, that means that 59 percent of high school graduates who took the ACT in your state scored the same as or lower than you. The same is true for the US rank. 

These ranks are also broken down by test area, so you can see how you did in comparison to your peers in math, science, English, reading, and the optional writing portion.

The ACT Readiness Range gives you another way to evaluate your scores based on how ready you are for college. If your individual subject matter scores fall within the Readiness Range, this indicates that you have a good chance of passing first-year college courses in that subject area. 

Take each element of your ACT score as a guideline for areas to work on as you prepare for college. If your math score falls outside the ACT Readiness Range, for example, you might seek out additional support in your high school math classes (through tutoring or help from your teacher, for example), or enroll in a summer course at a local community college.

Target school average ACT score 

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