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The ACT (American College Testing) is an international higher education entrance exam accepted in the application process for universities in the United States and many other countries around the world. Offered as an alternative to the SAT, the ACT is accepted with equal validity by all universities in the US.
The exam consists of four core sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. There is also an optional Writing section. Each section is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, and the average of the four sections makes up your total ACT score. The ACT is now also administered digitally at many test centers.
With its inclusion of a Science section and its faster-paced structure, the ACT can be an advantageous option, especially for students who are strong in quantitative subjects. A high ACT score not only makes a difference in university admissions but also opens the door to significant scholarship opportunities.
To determine whether the SAT or the ACT is the right exam for you and to plan your preparation correctly, get in touch with our expert advisors.
The ACT, or American College Testing, is an exam first introduced in 1959 by ACT, Inc., a non-profit organization, for the purpose of university admissions in the United States. Having become widespread and grown into a standardized international exam over the period from 1959 to the present day, the ACT is today accepted by all four-year undergraduate degree-granting universities in the United States, as well as by many universities outside the United States.
The ACT exam consists of four multiple-choice tests — English, Mathematics, Reading and Science — as well as an optional Writing (essay) test that candidates may choose to take.
These tests are designed to measure the skills acquired in secondary education that are important for success in post-secondary education.
For each of the four multiple-choice tests, scores range from 1 to 36. The composite score is the average of the four multiple-choice tests, rounded to the nearest whole number.
Essay — without this section the exam lasts 2 hours and 55 minutes, while with the optional essay section this rises to 3 hours and 35 minutes.
For a long time one of the cornerstones of university admissions exams in various countries, chiefly the United States, the ACT will undergo significant changes as of April 2025.
In response to the steadily evolving nature of standardized exams, these changes aim to create a more flexible and more student-friendly testing experience, to reduce test fatigue, and to make the ACT more modern.
Among the significant changes coming to the ACT are a shortened test duration, making the science section optional, and expanding the digital test format.
The most striking changes, however, appear in the structure and length of the exam and in the way the highly important composite score is calculated.
The changes to be made to the structure of the exam can be listed as follows;
The number of questions in the English, Mathematics, and Reading sections, which are the core components of the ACT, will be reduced, and the time given to test takers for these sections will be shortened.
The total exam duration for these three sections will be reduced from 195 minutes to 125–131 minutes.
This means that the total number of questions posed to test takers is reduced by 44 questions.
The aim of this change is to reduce test takers' exam fatigue and to give participants more time per question.
The number of questions on the ACT English Test will be reduced from 75 to 50.
The time given to participants for this section of the exam will be 35 minutes.
At this point, it can be expected that the reading passages given to participants will also be shortened.
Although standard English rules such as grammar, usage, and punctuation will continue to be assessed, questions targeting writing skills—such as evaluating the purposes of texts, strengthening arguments, and logical sentence and paragraph transitions—and language-oriented questions such as vocabulary and style will gain importance.
All English questions will now include a direct question stem, making it clearer which skill is being assessed.
The number of questions on the ACT Mathematics Test will be reduced from 60 to 45.
The time given to participants for this section of the exam will be 50 minutes.
An important change made in this section of the exam is that math questions will from now on have four multiple-choice answer options instead of five.
Changes to the content of the Mathematics Test are also possible, and accordingly it is likely that the number of questions on entry-level algebra and advanced algebra (Algebra I and II), geometry, statistics, and probability will be increased while the number of questions related to introductory calculus will be decreased.
Questions that assess knowledge and skills related to higher-level math courses such as algebra, functions, and geometry will gain importance.
The ACT Reading Test will consist of 36 questions, and participants will be given 40 minutes.
Whereas test takers were previously given 35 minutes for 40 questions, they will now be given 40 minutes for 36 questions.
Accordingly, it can be anticipated that the reading passages given to participants will also be shortened.
The ACT Science Test will become optional.
Test takers will now be able to choose whether or not to take the Science Test in line with the admission requirements of the universities they will apply to.
With the Science Test becoming optional, the composite ACT score in the 1–36 range will be calculated based only on the English, Mathematics, and Reading sections.
If test takers choose to take the Science Test as well, the score they receive from this test will be reported as a separate science score, and this score will also contribute to the overall STEM score by being averaged with the Mathematics Test score.
Unlike the SAT, which has transitioned entirely to a digital format, the ACT will continue to offer both paper-based and digital testing options. The digital version of the ACT will, again unlike the SAT, be a linear and non-adaptive exam.
All participants will answer the same questions on the digital exam as on the paper-based exam. In addition, the Optional Writing Test will remain available for students who wish to take it.
The new and enhanced ACT exam format will take effect as of April 2025 for the digital versions of national exams administered in the U.S., and as of September 2025 for the digital versions of international exams.
With the Science Test becoming optional, new considerations are expected to arise regarding the superscore practice.
As is known, superscoring refers to combining a test taker's best section scores from multiple exam sittings.
Starting in September 2025, or when a test taker takes the new and enhanced online ACT for the first time, the ACT's official Superscore Report will be calculated based only on the exam's English, Reading, and Mathematics sections.
Accordingly, universities and university colleges are expected to determine their own superscore policies and how scores in the old and new ACT formats will be taken into account.
The ACT is designed to appeal to a broad audience, and there are no restrictive prerequisites for taking the exam. In general, individuals aged 13 and over can sit for the ACT.
Individuals under the age of 13 may need to contact ACT, Inc. to obtain special permission and guidance in order to take the ACT.
There is no upper age limit for those who wish to take the ACT. Therefore, individuals who have finished their schooling or adults looking to advance in their careers can also sit for the exam.
The ACT is generally aimed at high school students preparing for university applications, and particularly at students in grades 10, 11 and 12.
That said, students in grades 6, 7, 8 or 9 can also take the ACT as part of talent identification programs or to become familiar with standardized tests early on.
High school graduates may choose to take the ACT if they did not sit for any standardized test during their high school years or if they want to achieve better scores.
The ACT welcomes test takers from all over the world, and there are no country-based restrictions.
International students need to follow the special registration procedures for testing outside the United States, which can be found on ACT’s official website .
As we mentioned above, since all sections of the ACT require a good level of reading, comprehension and language skills, it is important for international students to have a strong command of English.
Each of the English, Math, Reading and Science sections that make up the ACT is scored on a scale from 1 to 36. Composite Score is the combined score, which is the average of the scores test takers earn on the four sections mentioned above, and this score is rounded to the nearest whole number. Composite Score is the main score reported to universities that accept the ACT and used by them as one of the criteria for admitting students.
The highest combined score test takers can obtain on the ACT (Composite Score) is 36. If test takers also complete the optional writing section, a separate score from the combined score is reported, and this score falls in the range of 2 – 12. The score test takers earn on the optional writing section does not affect the combined score (Composite Score) .
For each section of the ACT, a test taker's raw score corresponds to the total number of questions they answered correctly. As we mentioned above, there is no penalty for wrong answers on the ACT, so it will be to the test taker's advantage to attempt every question.
These raw scores are then converted into a scaled score for each section. The scaled scores for the English, Math, Reading and Science sections range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 36.
This scaling process ensures that, for example, a score of 28 from a test session held on a particular date is equivalent to a score of 28 from a test session held on another date, regardless of the small differences between the tests themselves.
In order to reach the highest possible combined score in a student's application evaluation, many universities use the superscore (Superscoring) practice, which we mentioned above and which takes into account the highest section scores test takers earned from different ACT test sessions held on different dates. ACT, Inc. also offers an official superscore report option.
The interface used for the digital version of the ACT is shown below. Individuals who wish to take the ACT can access sample questions and full practice tests at this link.
A good ACT score is the score that will allow test takers to gain admission to the ACT-accepting universities they wish to apply to.
At this point, it is important to remember that what counts as a good score can vary considerably depending on each test taker's individual goals and university preferences.
Achieving a score above the average ACT score of the universities test takers plan to apply to will, of course, increase their chances of being admitted.
The average ACT score ranges of ACT-accepting universities and colleges differ from one another. While some universities and colleges look for students with scores in the 30s, others may accept scores in the 20s.
For example, while the average ACT score of students admitted to Harvard University is 34, the average ACT score of students admitted to the University of Massachusetts Boston is 23.
To clearly understand what kind of score they should aim for, test takers need to research the average ACT scores of the schools they wish to apply to.
The official websites of universities and colleges are most often where this information can be found, so that test takers can assess their current situation and set a realistic goal.
The SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test), administered by the College Board, and the ACT (American College Testing), administered by ACT, Inc., are two different standardized tests preferred especially by students who wish to study at universities in the United States.
Although most American universities today accept scores from both tests, understanding the differences between them allows students to choose the exam that best showcases their strengths, making their application process more advantageous.
In order to understand the differences between the SAT and the ACT, it is necessary to be informed about important elements such as their structures, content, scoring systems, and the time allotted to participants.
Exam Duration
The ACT lasts 2 hours and 55 minutes without the optional essay section, and 3 hours and 35 minutes with the optional essay section.
Exam Format
Although the ACT is offered in a paper-and-pencil written format in the United States, digital exams are used internationally.
Unlike the new digital SAT, the ACT does not have an adaptive structure.
Sections of the Exam
The ACT consists of four multiple-choice sections and an optional essay section.
These four multiple-choice sections consist of English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing (Optional).
Exam Duration
The digital SAT lasts approximately 2 hours and 14 minutes.
Exam Format
Now a digital-first exam taken on a computer, the SAT’s most important feature is its adaptive structure.
On the digital SAT, the difficulty of the second modules of the Reading & Writing and Math sections is adapted according to the performance students show in the first module.
Sections of the Exam
The digital SAT consists of two main sections: Reading and Writing and Math. Students are given 64 minutes to complete the Reading and Writing section and 70 minutes to complete the Math section, for a total of 2 hours and 14 minutes.
Each section is divided into two modules of equal length. There is a ten-minute break between the Reading and Writing and Math sections of the SAT.
The first module of each section consists of easy, medium, and hard questions, and depending on the performance students show in the first module, the questions in the second module will be harder or easier.
The digital SAT is shorter than the ACT (excluding the essay section). The adaptive format of the digital SAT is very different from the more traditional structure of the ACT.
The ACT also has a completely separate Science section that is not among the sections of the digital SAT.
On the digital SAT, on the other hand, questions related to the sciences are integrated into the other SAT sections.
On the SAT, the score students can earn ranges from 400 to 1600. The scores of the Reading and Writing and Math sections that make up the SAT each correspond to a score ranging from 200 to 800.
The total score of students taking the exam is obtained by combining the scores of these two sections. As we mentioned above, there is no penalty for wrong answers on the SAT.
On the other hand, on the ACT the composite score ranges from 1 to 36, and the score students receive within this range is obtained by averaging the scores of the four multiple-choice sections that make up the ACT.
Each of the English, Math, Reading, and Science sections that make up the ACT is scored on a scale from 1 to 36.
Just like the SAT, the ACT has no penalty for wrong answers. If students take the optional essay test, this essay receives a score ranging from 2 to 12. This score is given separately from the scores of the other sections and does not affect the total score between 1 and 36.
Both the SAT and the ACT are held several times throughout the year. The SAT is usually held on weekends and mostly in March, May, June, August, October, November, and December. Registration for the SAT is carried out through the College Board website.
Just like the SAT, the ACT is mostly held on weekends and generally in February, April, June, July, September, October, and December. Registration for the ACT is also carried out through the ACT website.
Preparing for the ACT is a lengthy process that involves steps such as setting a target score range, taking practice tests, and building a study schedule based on the results obtained.
Accordingly, students who plan to take the exam are advised to begin studying at least 3 to 6 months in advance, or even 1 year ahead if possible.
A high ACT score has the potential to strengthen the university applications of the students taking the exam and to open the door to various scholarship programs.
Before they start studying, students are advised to research the average ACT scores of the universities and university colleges they wish to apply to, and to set a realistic target for themselves accordingly.
Afterwards, students should complete official ACT practice tests through ACT’s MyACT application. This way, students can obtain a baseline score that shows where they stand and see what their strengths and weaknesses are across different content areas and question types.
After this, students should create a study plan that takes into account the result they received on the practice test, their target score, and the amount of time they have available.
When creating this plan, students are advised to use their time wisely and to devote more time to the areas where they need to improve. While preparing the plan, students are also encouraged to take into account their schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and personal responsibilities.
Instead of long and unproductive study sessions, students should prefer short and productive study sessions that focus on the topics where they have room to improve. This is because regular, short study sessions are generally more effective than irregular, long ones.
A sample 6–7-month timeline that students can use during their preparation period might look like this:
Month 1
During this month, students should become familiar with the format of the ACT and focus on the fundamental concepts in the English, Math, Reading, and Science sections that make up the exam.
Months 2–3 or 2–4
During this period, students should focus in particular on the areas where they are weak and work on practice questions and concepts of moderate difficulty.
Months 3–5 or 4–6
During this period, students should focus on more advanced topics and question types and begin taking full-length practice tests more regularly, for example once every two or three weeks.
Final Month
During the final month, students should focus on reviewing the mistakes they made on their practice tests, revisiting the topics they got wrong if necessary, and start taking practice tests under time constraints.
The international ACT exam dates for the 2025-26 academic year are listed below.
The registration fee for the exam is $188.50 and this fee does not include the optional writing section or the science section. The fees for exams that also include the science and optional writing tests are as follows.
Source: global.act.org
Added to the test fee, except for a test center change.
Source: global.act.org
The ACT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Developed and administered by ACT, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, the ACT is designed to assess whether high school students are ready to undertake college-level work.
Along with the SAT, the ACT is one of the two main college entrance exams accepted by nearly all four-year universities and colleges in the US. It was first introduced in 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist, a professor at the University of Iowa, and was created as an alternative to the College Board's SAT.
Originally intended to be directly linked to the high school curriculum in order to assess both the aptitudes students develop throughout their high school education and the knowledge and skills learned in core subjects, the ACT continues to be regarded today as a more curriculum-aligned test that evaluates how well students have mastered the concepts taught in typical American high school courses.
The scores students earn on the ACT are used by US universities as part of a holistic admissions process to make admission decisions and/or for scholarship evaluations, together with high school grade point average, the difficulty of the courses students have taken, extracurricular activities, admission essays and letters of recommendation.
The English Test included in the ACT requires test takers to review the passages they are given and make the correct edits. Through short passages and essays of various types, ACT test takers are presented with a range of rhetorical situations.
The reading passages given to test takers are selected according to their suitability for assessing writing and language skills, and according to how well they reflect the interests and experiences of the test takers. Test takers are given 45 minutes for the English Test, which covers language use, mechanics, sentence structure and rhetorical skills.
Consisting of 75 questions in total, the test is made up of five reading passages that feature various underlined portions on one side and correction options for those underlined portions on the other side.
The questions posed to test takers in this test generally focus on language use and mechanics such as commas, apostrophes, misplaced or dangling modifiers, colon usage, and fragmented and comma-splice sentences, as well as rhetorical skills such as style in terms of clarity and conciseness, writing strategy, sentence and paragraph transitions, and on sentence order, sentence structure, and structuring sentences correctly in terms of style and grammar.
The English Test section of the ACT can be summarized as follows:
Time Allotted
45 Minutes
Number of Questions
75 Multiple-Choice Questions
Test Content
Assessment of the rules of standard written English such as punctuation, grammar, language use and sentence structure, and of rhetorical skills such as writing strategy, sentence and paragraph organization, and style.
In this section of the ACT, test takers are presented with several prose passages, some parts of which are underlined.
Test takers must decide whether the underlined portion in question is correct, or choose the most appropriate option from those presented to them.
The questions posed to test takers in this section also cover topics related to the overall organization of the reading passages and the effectiveness of the expression.
Examples of the question types found in the English Test of the ACT are as follows. You can access detailed information about the ACT and sample practice tests at MyACT , and the ACT Quizzes at ACT QuizMe .
The ACT exam is designed for students in grades 10, 11 and/or 12, with the aim of providing higher education institutions with the data they need to help students succeed after high school.
Administered 7 times a year in the United States and Canada and 5 times a year in other countries, the ACT exam measures high school students' overall academic development and their ability to complete university-level work through multiple-choice tests covering four distinct skill areas — English, Mathematics, Reading, Science and, optionally, Writing.
More specifically, the scores test-takers earn on the ACT provide an indicator of college readiness, and the scores on each of the subtests that make up the exam correspond to the skills found in entry-level university courses in English, algebra, social sciences, humanities and biology.
The ACT exam is recognized by more than 700 universities outside the United States, including institutions in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Turkey. Many private universities in Turkey accept ACT scores as part of their admissions process for international students.
The Mathematics Test of the ACT assesses the general mathematics skills that students have typically acquired through the courses they have taken up to Grade 11.
The material covered by the test focuses on the main content areas that are prerequisites for the performance students need to demonstrate in order to succeed in introductory-level courses in college-level mathematics.
While knowledge of basic formulas and computational skills is regarded as the foundation for mathematics problems, this test does not require memorizing complex formulas or performing extensive calculations.
Test takers are given 60 minutes for a total of 60 mathematics questions. Although these 60 questions vary from test to test, they generally consist of 14 pre-algebra questions, 10 elementary algebra questions, 9 intermediate algebra questions, 14 plane geometry questions, 9 coordinate geometry questions, and 4 elementary trigonometry questions.
In the Mathematics Test, the difficulty of the questions posed to test takers generally increases as they progress toward higher question numbers. Accordingly, questions 1–20 are the easiest, questions 21–40 are of medium difficulty, and questions 41–60 are the hardest. A calculator may be used only in this section, and only the questions in this section of the exam have 5 answer choices instead of 4.
The Mathematics Test section of the ACT can be summarized as follows:
Time Allotted
60 Minutes
Number of Questions
60 Multiple-Choice Questions
Test Content
Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra: Basic operations, percentages, ratio and proportion, linear equations.
Advanced Algebra/Coordinate Geometry: Quadratic equations, radical and rational expressions, systems of equations, graphing, properties of lines and shapes in the coordinate plane.
Plane Geometry/Trigonometry: Properties of shapes such as triangles, circles and quadrilaterals, area, volume, basic trigonometric functions, properties of right triangles.
Examples of the types of questions found in the Mathematics Test of the ACT are given below. You can access detailed information about the ACT and sample practice tests at MyACT , and the ACT Quizzes at ACT QuizMe .
The Reading Test section of the ACT assesses test takers' abilities to read closely, to reason about the passages by drawing on the evidence found within them, and to integrate information from multiple different sources.
The questions in this test focus on the mutually supporting skills that test takers need to draw on as they examine written material across a variety of subjects.
The questions posed to test takers in this test require them to;
identify main ideas,
locate and interpret significant details,
understand sequences of events,
make comparisons,
grasp cause-and-effect relationships,
determine the meanings of words and phrases in context,
make generalizations,
analyze the voice and method used by the author or narrator,
examine the arguments, claims, and evidence contained within the reading passages, and
integrate information drawn from multiple texts
.
The Reading Test consists of four sections, three of which contain one long prose passage and the second of which contains two short prose passages, and this test has 40 questions.
Test takers are given 35 minutes to complete the test. The passages in the test correspond to the text levels and types frequently encountered in a first-year university curriculum.
The Reading Test section of the ACT can be summarized as follows;
Allotted Time
35 Minutes
Number of Questions
40 Multiple-Choice Questions
Test Content
This section of the ACT assesses test takers' reading comprehension skills. Test takers are expected to read four reading passages or pairs of reading passages given to them and to answer questions based on these passages.
The reading passages in question;
Prose Fiction / Literary Narrative
Social Sciences
Humanities
Natural Sciences
cover fields such as these.
The skills assessed in this section of the ACT include identifying main ideas, locating details, understanding the sequence of events, making comparisons, determining cause-and-effect relationships, interpreting the author's voice and purpose, and drawing inferences.
Examples of the question types found in the ACT Reading Test are shown below. You can find detailed information about the ACT and sample practice tests at MyACT , and you can access the ACT Quizzes at ACT QuizMe .
The Science Test on the ACT assesses test takers' skills in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning and problem solving as required in the natural sciences.
The Science Test presents test takers with several distinct scientific scenarios and asks them to answer the multiple-choice questions that follow.
Although the content of the Science Test is drawn from biology, chemistry, earth/space sciences (e.g. geology, astronomy and meteorology) and physics, the knowledge test takers have acquired in the courses of these sciences is not tested directly.
The questions posed to test takers in this test require them to identify and understand the basic features of the information and data provided to them and the fundamental concepts relating to them, to critically examine the relationships between the information provided and the conclusions reached or hypotheses developed, and to make generalizations from the information provided in order to obtain new information, draw conclusions and make predictions.
The ACT Science test consists of 40 questions, and test takers are given 35 minutes for this test. Test takers are given a total of 7 passages, with 5 to 7 questions posed per passage. These passages may be written in three different formats: data representation, research summary and conflicting viewpoints.
The Science Test section of the ACT can be summarized as follows;
Time Allotted
35 Minutes
Number of Questions
40 Multiple-Choice Questions
Test Content
This section of the ACT is the one that surprises test takers the most, because specific knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences is not assessed directly in this section. Rather, it tests the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning and problem-solving skills required for the natural sciences.
The questions in this section are generally based on scientific information presented in one of three formats:
Data Representation: Graphs, tables, diagrams, charts, etc.
Research Summaries: Descriptions of experiments.
Conflicting Viewpoints: Multiple hypotheses or views regarding a scientific phenomenon.
In this section, test takers must understand the information provided to them, evaluate it with a critical approach and draw conclusions.
Examples of the question types found in the Science Test of the ACT are given below. You can access detailed information about the ACT and sample practice tests at MyACT , and the ACT Quizzes at ACT QuizMe .
The ACT Writing Test is an optional test that candidates can choose to take, measuring the writing skills taught in high-school English classes and in entry-level college composition courses.
The Writing Test consists of a single writing prompt that describes a complex issue and presents three different perspectives on that issue.
Candidates are required to read this writing prompt and write an essay (essay) in which they develop their own perspective on the issue.
In the essay (essay) they write, candidates must analyze the relationship between their own perspective and one or more other perspectives.
Candidates may adopt one of the perspectives given in the prompt as their own, or they may present a perspective entirely different from those provided.
The optional Writing Test is administered at the end of the exam, and candidates are given 40 minutes for this test.
The Writing Test section of the ACT can be summarized as follows;
Time Allotted
40 Minutes
The Task
Candidates are expected to read a short passage that describes a particular issue and presents three different perspectives on it.
Candidates are then asked to write an essay (essay) in which they analyze these perspectives, develop their own perspective on the issue, and explain the relationship between their perspective and those presented in the passage.
This section of the ACT is scored by two different readers across five separate domains — ideas and analysis, development and support of ideas, organization of the written text, language use, grammar and usage conventions — on a scale of 1 to 6, resulting in a final score between 2 and 12.
Although this section is left to the candidate's discretion, some universities and colleges that accept the ACT may require it for admission and placement purposes.
Accordingly, candidates should check the admission policies of the higher-education institutions they wish to apply to.
An example of the type of essay task found in the ACT Optional Writing Test is shown below. You can find detailed information about the ACT and sample practice tests at MyACT , and you can access the ACT Quizzes at ACT QuizMe .
Understanding the ACT format, scoring, and test dates early lets you plan a realistic preparation timeline. Register in good time, sit a practice test to find your baseline, and focus your study on the sections where you can gain the most.
Dream Uni's advisors guide you on how the ACT fits your university applications, when to sit it, and how to prepare effectively. Book a free consultation to build your study plan.
Your ACT result is one piece of a bigger picture that also includes your grades, personal statement, and references, so it helps to know exactly how much weight it carries for the courses you want. Dream Uni can tell you the scores your target universities expect, the best time of year to sit the ACT, and whether a resit is worth it. With that clarity you can prepare efficiently and avoid spending time on sections that will not change your outcome.
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