What's a Good ACT Score for 2026?

Planning to take the ACT this year? Then you're probably wondering, "What's a good ACT score for 2026?" In this in-depth guide, we walk through three different ways you can define good ACT scores for 2026 (or any other year!) and then explain how to figure out the ACT score you need to meet your goals.

Note: ACT scores are extra confusing this year because the Enhanced ACT introduced in 2025 uses three sections to calculate the composite score instead of four. We'll talk more about this below.

What's a Good ACT Score for 2026 Overall?

A good ACT score for you will always be one that's high enough to get you into the colleges you're applying to. But if we want to figure out what a good ACT score for 2026 is more generally, then we need to consider how high a particular score is compared with the scores of other test takers. By this definition, the more test takers you scored higher than, the more impressive your ACT score is.

The two most common ways people compare their ACT scores are by looking at averages and looking at percentiles.

We'll start with the average ACT scores. As a general rule, if you scored in the top half of all test takers, your ACT score is considered good. The higher above average you score, the better. Similarly, a score that places you in the bottom half of test takers can be considered not good. The further below average your ACT score is, the worse you did on the exam compared to other students.

According to the most recent ACT data, the average ACT score is 19.2 (out of 36). However, this average still includes the science score in the composite, which current ACT scores do not. The individual section score averages are around 19 as well:

• English: 18.6
• Math: 19.0
• Reading: 20.1

• Science: 19.6

But what about percentiles? Percentiles tell you what percentage of students you scored the same as or higher than on the ACT. For example, if you earned a score in the 64th percentile, this would mean that you did the same as or better than 64% of test takers.

The chart below shows how ACT percentiles translate to performance on the test based on how well you did relative to other students:

Source: National Norms for ACT Test Scores

As you can see, you only need to get a 28 out of 36 composite score on the ACT to break into the top 10% of test takers. That means you can get an excellent ACT score without having to stress over getting a perfect 36. You don't even need to get a score in the 30s!

At the other end of the spectrum, a score at 12 or below would place you in the bottom 10% of test takers, which doesn't look particularly impressive on college applications. Even if you were able to raise your score by 3 points, you'd still be in the bottom 25% of test takers, with three quarters of high school students having scored better than you. Therefore, we can say that any ACT score at or below the 25th percentile is not good.

But percentiles aren't the only factor to determine what a good ACT score is. What's more important is whether your score is good enough to get you into your dream college.

How Does the Enhanced ACT Change ACT Scoring?

In 2025, the ACT rolled out a suite of test changes that included offering a digital version of the exam and making the science section optional. As such, your composite score is now the average of just your English, Math, and Reading scores; the Science score is not included. 

The ACT hasn't yet released any score data from the new version of the exam, so we don't yet know how this change will affect percentiles. For now, the main takeaway is that each of the three remaining sections — English, Math and Reading — has a greater impact on your final score. It's now harder to make up for one weak section with stellar performances on the others.

What's a Good ACT Score 2026 for You?

Ultimately, what's most important when it comes to good SAT scores isn't what percentile you're in, but whether your score is high enough to get you into your dream college. At PrepScholar, we call this your ACT goal score. It's the score that's most likely to get you admitted to the schools you're applying to. Hit your goal score, and you'll have a great shot at attending your top-choice college!

Your own goal score will depend on where you plan to apply. If you're applying to extremely competitive Ivy League-level schools, like Stanford and Harvard, your goal score will be high—as close as you can get to a perfect 36. If, on the other hand, you're looking at less competitive schools like University of Iowa, your goal score will be closer to a still-good-but-not-exceptional 28.

Let's walk through how to figure out what makes a good SAT score for you based on the schools you're applying to. Our quick three-step process requires only a worksheet (linked below), a writing utensil, and an internet-browsing device!

Step 1: Make a Schools Chart

Your first step is to make a chart that includes the name of each school you’re applying to and the 25th percentile and 75th percentile scores for each school’s admitted students. You can make the chart yourself, or download ours.

Fill in all the schools you want to apply to in the leftmost column. The priority should be your match schools and reach schools, but safety schools are also worth including. If you aren't sure where you want to apply, we recommend taking the time to do some research on schools you might want to attend first so that you have a realistic SAT goal score. You can also try out our college chances tool to get more ideas of which schools you might be interested in.

The more your list reflects the schools you actually end up applying to, the more accurate your target score will be.

Step 2: Find ACT Score Ranges for Your Schools

The next step is to do some online research to find the ACT information for each school. Specifically, you'll want to look for the middle 50%, or average, range of ACT scores⁠—i.e., the 25th and 75th percentile scores⁠—for each school.

The easiest way to do this is to use our PrepScholar college database. Simply search for "[School Name] PrepScholar" or "[School Name] PrepScholar ACT" and then click the link to the school's page in either our ACT/GPA or admissions databases.

Once you've clicked the link to that school's page in one of our databases, scroll down to find the SAT score information for that school. Fill in the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for that school.

If you score at or above the 75th percentile for any school, you'll have an excellent chance of getting in (assuming your other credentials are on point for the school). So that's a good ACT score for that school. If you're at the 25th percentile, however, you'll need to have a particularly strong application to boost your odds of getting in.

For each school on your list, Google the PrepScholar ACT score information, and write down the 25th- and 75th-percentile scores in the appropriate row for that school on your goal score sheet.

Step 3: Set Your ACT Goal Score

Now that you have your school chart complete, it’s time to figure out your goal score! To do this, find the highest 75th percentile score in your chart. This will be the ACT score you’re going to aim for because it’s the most likely to get you accepted to all the schools in your list.

If your goal score is much higher than your current score and/or you're applying to just a few schools with a much higher ACT average, you can use the average of the 75th percentile scores instead.

Have Good ACT Scores Changed Over Time? 

So far we've looked at a few different ways we can define good ACT scores for 2026. But how has the definition of good ACT scores changed over the years?

The truth is, it hasn't really. Even though average ACT scores and percentiles tend to shift a bit from year to year, it's usually not by much. So what's considered a good ACT score stays fairly stable over time.

This chart shows how average section and composite ACT scores have changed over the years:

Sources: ACT Score Reports

As you can see, scores dipped in the past few years. 2022 was the first year the average composite score dropped below 20, and 2024 was the first time that score dropped below 19. This change is too recent to fully understand, but it's believed to be due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schools. Last year's rebound in composite score may be due partly to post-COVID recovery and partly due to the Science sections reduced importance.

There's likely to be further change in the coming years. Since the Science is now optional, the average for that section is likely to drop over coming years.

 Recap: What's a Good ACT Score for 2026?

A “good” ACT score for 2026 can be defined in two main ways: how you compare to other test takers and whether your score is strong enough to get you into your target colleges. Nationally, the average composite ACT score is about 19.2, so scoring above that places you in the top half of students. However, percentile rankings alone don’t determine whether a score is “good” for you.

The ACT changed significantly in 2025 with the introduction of the Enhanced ACT. The Science section is now optional, and composite scores are calculated using only English, Math, and Reading. This means each of those three sections now carries more weight, so balanced performance across the three core sections is now more important than ever.

Ultimately, the most important definition of a “good” ACT score is whether it meets your personal goal score—the score that gives you a strong chance of admission to your chosen colleges. To determine this, students should research the 25th and 75th percentile ACT scores for admitted students at each target school and aim for the highest 75th percentile score on their list.