Honestly, I have no idea how to feel about my ACT score. I took the test on the February 7th date, and I just looked at my score today. I only got a 27. And this is coming from the person who was expecting a 30 or above. Unless my school grades don’t at all reflect my intelligence (or lack of intelligence), the score doesn’t make sense. I got a 32 on English, which is by far my best subject. I’m especially good at grammar, so unless I’m clueless, I feel like a 32 is kind of low. What bothers me terribly is my science score: 22. Seriously, 22? That’s BEYOND horrible. It’s awful to have such a huge gap between the highest and lowest scores. And math was terrible too, and I have over a 99% in my math class right now and I’ve never gotten anything less than an A- in a math class. I have over a 4.0 cumulative GPA. Am I overreacting, or is there a serious problem here? I’ve always been a very good test taker, but this was atrocious. The ONLY positive part of this test was my writing score, which was a 10 out of 12, and I think that’s pretty good. I’m retaking it twice more, so hopefully the first time was just an off-day or something. However, I highly doubt I’ll be able to improve my composite score by at least 3 whole points to reach my goal. Has anyone ever been in this situation? Is it possible to improve a composite score by 3+ points without needing to work with a private tutor for 5 hours every night or something? And if someone with a 4.023 GPA with A’s in all high school classes (including advanced classes and AP’s) can’t even get close to a 30, who can??? And how do they do it? I’m just mainly concerned with reading (which was only a 29, even though I’ve always been an excellent reader), math, and especially science. So, should I be terribly worried, or is it possible to improve a score by that many points?? THANK YOU.
Can you order a hand scoring? Perhaps bubbling error?
First of all, calm down,your score may not be what you expected, but it’s not atrocious as you believe. It is actually a good score, but I hear that you want to score in the 30’s. You do not state if you prepared for this test,but the Official ACT book is a good study aide. Your writng is strong as is English. Do not judge your intelligence by the test. So many kids prep for these tests because it’s like anything else you want to do well on-- you study for it. Just stop beating yourself up.
No need to freak out. In fact, Science being your lowest score at 22 is a great sign because it’s the dumbest section and easiest to improve. The science section requires that you are familiar with how to take it above all else; it does not test science ability or knowledge whatsoever and is more related to reading comprehension. With minimal practice, I could easily see you getting your Science score to a 30 (pro tip: you typically don’t need to read the explanatory paragraph(s) about the experiment, so look at the questions first to save time).
A 29 on reading is also great for a first try. I got a 28 my first time and ended up with a 34 after some practice. Again, familiarity helps a lot. What was your Math score?
Obviously this is just my opinion but I agree with those who state that the SAT and ACT test one’s ability to take the test as much as or more than their intelligence. Practice goes a long way. I know that mathematics is my academic strength, yet my final superscored ACT result (35 eng 34 read 32 math 32 sci) doesn’t reflect that whatsoever. The takeaway from this should be, IMO, that you should’t freak out over your ACT score because a test doesn’t define or even necessarily reflect who you are, and because you still have lots of time to gain familiarity with the test and thus to improve your score. Have confidence, I can definitely see you getting a score above 30.
You could also try the SAT
If all 4.0+ students scored high on the ACT, colleges wouldn’t ask for it. The average SAT for a 4.0 student is just shy of 1900. A 28 is roughly comparable to 1900, so I’d say there’s nothing really out of the ordinary about your ACT score. Maybe you’ll do better on the SAT. It’s worth a shot.
Did you do practice tests at all? How did those scores compare to this one?
If you didn’t…that’s why.