Putting ACT Scores into Perspective

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
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<p>It was not that long ago that my daughter was stressing out about her ACT score like many of you are doing now. Of course, everyone wants to score as high as they can, and getting a perfect score of 36 is what many aspire to. But, I wanted to post a link for all of you to put your scores into perspective. Here is a link from the official ACT site that lists the percentiles for each composite and section of the ACT:</p>

<p>Score</a> Information | National Ranks for Test Scores and Composite Score | ACT Student</p>

<p>If you get a 33, 34, 35, or 36 composite score on the ACT, then that puts you in the 99th percentile of all students that have taken the ACT from 2010, 2011, and 2012. A 32 composite puts you in the 98th percentile, a 31 at the 97th percentile, a 30 at the 95th percentile, a 29 at the 93rd percentile, etc.</p>

<p>The point is, you don't need to get a 36 on the ACT to show that you are an outstanding student. Try to prepare, study, and prep for the ACT to the best of your ability, and then try to be happy with your score with the knowledge that you did the best that you possibly could. You are more that your ACT score. The ACT is just one part of your college application. You also have your GPA, class rank, rigor of the classes you have taken in high school, and your extra curricular activities.</p>

<p>My daughter stressed out about the ACT so much. She spent a lot of time prepping for it and ended up taking it 4 times. Her best composite score was a 31 (32 super score). She was trying to score as high as she could on the ACT, and like many students, would have loved to have gotten a 36 on it. She was a little bit disappointed that she didn't score higher on it, but then after showing her the link that I posted here for all of you, she is now really proud of her score. She also knows that she scored as high on it as she was able to and knows it is only one slice of her profile as a college applicant. The same is true for all of you.</p>

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<p>I second that. My daughter is taking it for the second time today. She scored 31 the first time she took it this past October and is trying to get a higher score this time. She was really stressed out until, while driving to the test site this morning, I put it into perspective for her by explaining this: With the score of 31, you are already among the top 3% of all test takers. If you score higher than 31 this time, well and good as that is what you wanted. Even if you scores less than 31 this time, only your highest score will be looked at. And if you score the same but get little better scoring in one or two sub sections, it will give you a higher super-score. Hence you can only benefit if you do better and can not cause any harm by doing poorly on today’s test.</p>

<p>That, I think, helped with the anxiety.</p>

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<p>well said…</p>