What Is a Good ACT Score? The Full 1–36 Range and Official Percentiles

Every answer to this question is either a number with no context or a dodge. Here is both the number and the context, because you need the two together.

The national answer, from ACT's own table

These are ACT's published national ranks — the percentage of test takers who earned each score or lower. This is the official 2026–2027 reference table, based on ACT-tested graduates from 2024 to 2026.

So if you want a one-line national answer: 18 is above average, 23 is comfortably good, 28 is excellent, and 31 is exceptional.

ACT percentile calculator: look up any score, by section as well as composite →

Is a 25 a good ACT score? A 27? A 30?

These get asked one number at a time, so here is each one answered directly. Every percentile below is ACT's published national rank — the share of test takers who scored at or below that number.

Is a 15 a bad ACT score?

A 15 is the 34th percentile, below the 19.1 national mean and below about two thirds of test takers. "Bad" is the wrong frame though. It still clears admission at open-enrolment colleges, and it sits in the part of the scale where improvement comes fastest, because the questions being missed are usually the straightforward ones rather than the hard ones.

Is a 20 a good ACT score?

A 20 is the 63rd percentile — above the 19.1 mean and above roughly three out of five test takers. It clears admission at most open-enrolment and many regional public universities. It is below the entry band on the large majority of published merit grids, which commonly start around 24 to 26.

Is a 24 a good ACT score?

A 24 is the 80th percentile, so it beats four out of five test takers. It is above average, competitive at a wide range of schools though not the most selective, and it meets the entry threshold for automatic merit aid at a number of public universities — which makes it one of the more valuable thresholds on the scale.

Is a 25 a good ACT score?

A 25 is the 83rd percentile — better than roughly four out of five test takers and comfortably above the national mean. It clears the entry band on a lot of published merit grids and sits inside the admitted range at most regional and many flagship public universities. A good score that is not yet a competitive one at selective schools.

Is a 27 a good ACT score?

A 27 is the 89th percentile, top 11%. This is the band where automatic merit money starts getting serious at large public universities — and because the awards move in steps rather than smoothly, it is also where the next point or two is most often worth real dollars.

Is a 28 a good ACT score?

A 28 is the 91st percentile, top 9%. It sits inside the admitted middle-50% range at the majority of public flagships and at many selective private universities, and on most published grids it is a band or two below the largest automatic award.

Is a 30 a good ACT score?

A 30 is the 94th percentile, top 6%. It clears the automatic merit threshold at many large public universities and sits within or near the admitted range at most selective schools, though not the most selective ones.

Is a 31 a good ACT score?

A 31 is the 96th percentile, top 4%. At most public flagships that is at or near the highest automatic award band, which means additional points may add nothing at all in merit terms. It falls within the admitted range at the majority of selective private universities.

Is a 34 a good ACT score?

A 34 is the 99th percentile. It is inside the admitted middle-50% range at nearly every university in the country including the most selective, and above the top band on essentially every published merit grid. At this level the test has stopped being the variable in the decision.

Is a 36 a good ACT score?

A 36 is the 100th percentile — ACT's table rounds the share scoring at or below it to 100, because nobody can score higher. Only a tiny fraction of test takers earn one, and a 35 is already the 99th percentile. No school requires it.

And a 19, the national average?

A 19 is the 58th percentile — slightly above the middle rather than exactly at it, because the average ACT score is 19.1 and the distribution is not symmetrical. Scores bunch in the high teens and thin out slowly toward 36, which is why 19 beats more than half the field.

The pattern worth taking from that list: the same one-point move means completely different things depending on where you start. Which is the next section.

Why the scale is not evenly spaced

Notice how unevenly those percentiles move. This is the most useful thing on this page.

Three points is three points on your score report. But three points from an 18 moves you past 16% of everyone who took the test, and three points from a 33 moves you past 2%.

That is not an argument against aiming high. It is an argument about where effort converts fastest — and for most students the answer is "right where you already are."

The honest answer: it depends on your list

A national percentile tells you how you did. It does not tell you whether your score is good enough, because nothing is awarded in percentiles. Two things set the real bar:

1. The admitted range at your schools. Every US college publishes the middle 50% of admitted students' scores. If a school's range is 25–31, a 28 is squarely competitive there regardless of what percentile it is nationally. Those ranges are usually far above national figures, because a selective school's applicant pool is nothing like the national pool.

2. The merit aid threshold at your schools. This is the one families miss. Many universities publish a grid that converts your score into a dollar award, and the bands are steps. On one real published grid, moving from 29 to 30 is worth $36,000 over four years — and moving from 32 to 35 is worth nothing, because both sit inside the same band.

How merit aid grids turn a score into money →

So "is a 29 good?" has two different answers. Nationally, it is the 93rd percentile — excellent. At a school whose grid steps up at 30, it is one point short of five figures.

By section: a 30 is not a 30 everywhere

The sections do not rank identically. The same scale score means something slightly different depending on which section it is on:

Reading runs a few points behind the others at the top of the scale — a 30 in Reading is less rare than a 30 in Math. Worth knowing if you are deciding which section to push.

Remember too that on the Enhanced ACT, Science is excluded from the composite, which averages English, Math and Reading only. A strong Science score is reported and can matter for a STEM program, but it cannot raise your composite.

Whether to take ACT Science at all →

One caveat about the composite percentile

Worth stating, because nobody else does: ACT publishes one national ranks table and it is the correct reference for a score earned today. But the students behind it — 2024 to 2026 graduates — sat a test whose composite averaged four sections, including Science. The Enhanced ACT composite averages three.

Section percentiles are unaffected by that change. Composite percentiles are ACT's official current reference rather than a strict like-for-like comparison against students who sat the same test you did. Use them, but know what they are.

How to set a target that is worth chasing

Skip the national number. Do this instead:

1. List four to six schools. Real ones, including a couple you would actually attend.
2. Write down each one's admitted middle-50% range. It is on their admissions page or Common Data Set.
3. Write down each one's merit aid threshold, if they publish a grid. Search [school] automatic merit scholarship chart.
4. Find the lowest number that clears something. The next band edge, or the bottom of an admitted range.
5. That is your target. Not 36, not a round number — the specific threshold that changes an outcome.

What moves fastest, if you need points

Three sections are averaged equally for your composite, so a point gained in any of them is worth the same. Which means:

• Work your lowest section first. It has the most accessible points.
• Diagnose before you study. Most students' misses are not knowledge gaps — they are pacing, misreading and careless errors, and those need completely different fixes.
• Attack clusters, not subjects. "An English problem" is usually four comma questions and two transitions. That is fixable in an afternoon; "English" is not.
• Consider a retake. Most students improve on a second attempt, and if your schools superscore, a retake can only help your number.

The full method for finding where your points are →

Related

• ACT percentile calculator — look up the exact percentile for any composite or section score
• How to improve your ACT score
• ACT and GPA scholarship charts — how a score becomes a dollar figure
• What changed on the Enhanced ACT
• Enhanced ACT score calculator
• Merit aid by ACT score: published grids by school — what your score is worth at 501 universities
• Test-optional doesn't mean scholarship-optional
• When should my kid take the ACT?
• ACT accommodations and extended time
• How do you know if ACT prep is working?