ACT Retake Advice

Hi Everyone!

I am an Asian male from the Midwest, and I received my first ACT scores yesterday. I am looking for input about whether I should retake it for increased admissions/scholarship chances. My scores from February’s ACT are listed below:

English: 36
Math: 36
Reading: 33
Science: 36

My primary concern is that my reading score is too low to make me competitive for the most elite universities. Another concern that I have is that my composite isn’t high enough to make me competitive for full ride scholarships. On the other hand, taking the ACT again means risking reducing the scores in the other categories to full disclosure schools.

Any kind of advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

Do not retake.

Is there any specific reason for this?

I also do not recommend you retake it. Your composite is high enough. For college admission purposes, a 35 and a 36 are essentially the same thing. A 36 will not give you a noticeable better edge. If I were you, I would focus more on strengthening other parts of the application, like extracurriculars and essays. Good Luck!

I agree that a 35 and a 36 have little to no difference. My primary concern is the 33 that I got on reading. Will colleges think that this deficiency is high enough to not admit me?

I don’t think the 33 in reading will really hurt you. You shouldn’t be rejected just for that one score, even at extremely competitive colleges. At this point colleges will weigh your other factors like letters of recommendation much more highly than just test scores. There are so many applicants with high scores that it won’t make or break your application anymore. For example, I got in to Duke with a single composite 34 ACT (superscore 35) and 1560 SAT. High enough but not that stellar for Duke. Really the rest of your application matters more. Don’t worry about your scores. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your insight! It really helped me a lot.