SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

If you just took the ACT or if you took the ACT in 2008-2010, you might be curious as to how your percentile score compares to students with the same scaled score in other years? In this guide, I'll explain what percentiles are, how they work on the ACT, and why they matter (even the older ones). I'll also give you ACT percentile charts for 2011-2014, so you can see how your scores stack up against historical ones.

What Is an ACT Percentile Score? 

Before I get started, I need to define what an ACT percentile actually is. An ACT percentile score is NOT the same as a percentage score you receive on school quiz (for example, when you score 91% on your Physics test that means you answered 91% of questions correctly).  

Instead, an ACT percentile score tells you how your scaled score compared to that of other test-takers. More specifically, the percentile is an approximation by the ACT of how many recent US high school graduates took the SAT and scored at or below your score. A percentile score makes your scaled score easier to comprehend since it’s on a vague scale (1-36).

As an example, if you have a 30th percentile score, you scored higher than 30% of ACT test-takers. If you have an 84th percentile score, you scored higher than 84% of test-takers. The higher your percentile score is, the better you compared to others who took that ACT.

If you took an in-class test, you could have a high test score (such as 95%) and have a relatively low percentile score (17th) if the test was very easy for your class (83% of the class scored above 95% on that test). On the other hand, you could have a low test score (such as 35%) and have a relatively high percentile score (88%) if the test was very hard for your class (only 12% of the class scored above 35%). 

On the ACT, percentile shifts tend not to be as extreme as this example since the ACT is equalized, but I’ll discuss this more in depth later on. Nonetheless, ACT percentiles are helpful for understanding your scaled scores, since percentiles allow you to determine where you fall in comparison to other test-takers.

Do ACT Percentiles Change Over Time?

For a specific scaled ACT score, the score percentile stays about the same from year to year (typically within 2-3%). If you don’t know how your ACT scaled score (1-36) is calculated, learn how to calculate ACT score before reading further.

There are only minuscule percentile changes for a specific scaled score from year to year because the ACT is equalized specifically to ensure the same curve every test date. To show the slight variation in percentile for a specific score, a scaled score of 18 was the 33rd percentile in 2008, but it was the 34th percentile in 2009 and the 35th percentile in 2010. However, a score of 33 had the same percentile for 2008-2010, 99th percentile.

What does it mean for percentiles for each scaled score to remain about the same from year to year? As I said above, the ACT attempts to keep score distributions the same from year to year so that the same scaled score means the same across different years. That way, a 33 means you scored better than 99% of test-takers in 2008-2010 (and any other year).

What this means for you is that no one test date (or test year) is better (or easier) than another. All test dates are equalized to make sure there is a similar score distribution.  

Why Care About ACT Score Percentiles? Especially Percentiles From Other Years?

You should care about your ACT score percentile because it helps college admissions officers compare your scaled score to those of other applicants. Admissions officers need percentile scores to have a sense of how you compare to students across the country. If they just saw your scaled score without any other information, they wouldn’t have any sense of what makes a good ACT scaled score and what makes a bad one.

For instance, if you’d received a 33 composite score and an admissions office didn’t know the score percentile, they might judge that as a quiz grade and think if you scored 33 out of 36, then you got a 92% or A-, good but not great. Instead, since they have score percentiles, admissions offices know a 33 is a 99th percentile score, meaning you scored better than 99% of test-takers, which is excellent.

Percentile scores allow college admissions offices to have an understanding of how test-takers do on the ACT and how you stack up to the rest of test-takers.   

But why should you care about percentiles from other years? Because you’re submitting your college apps at the same time as students who took the ACT in other years. Although you may have taken the ACT in 2009 as a junior in high school, other students might have waited to take the ACT until 2010 as seniors in high school. This doesn’t change the fact that you’re all still applying to college the same year.

While you and your friend, who took the test in 2010, both received a composite scaled score of 30. Your percentile score was 96 while his was 95. What this means is your 30 is slightly better than his 30. You scored better than 96% of test-takers while he only scored better than 95% of test-takers.

Comparing percentiles for a specific scaled score across different years is a useful tool to understand how you compare to other applicants who took the ACT a different year.

While ACT percentile scores are important, knowing how you fall in the ACT score ranges for your target colleges is much more important. If you don’t know what a college’s ACT score range is, the quick explanation is it’s the range in which the middle 50% of admitted students’ ACT scores fall. I.E., Yale’s ACT score range is 31-35. This means 25% of admitted Yale students scored below a 31, and 75% scored at or below a 35.

Schools mostly use their score ranges when making admissions decisions. As a result, no matter your percentile score, you’ll want your ACT composite scaled score to be at or above the 75th percentile (for example, 35 for Yale) to give yourself the best shot of getting in.

To locate the ACT score ranges for your dream colleges, search “[College Name] ACT Scores Prepscholar” in Google. For an in-depth explanation of score range, including how to calculate your target score, read our guide to good and bad ACT scores.

The reasons schools care about their score range over your score percentile are:

• Their score range is typically a part of the evaluation for college ranking list, so schools want to admit students with higher scaled scores so that the school will be ranked higher.
• Schools publish their scaled score range every year, so the higher the range, the more impressive it seems to the general public.

While ACT score percentiles are important, your overall ACT composite score is the number that is most significant in your college application.

ACT Percentiles for 2008-2010

Here I’ve created a table showing the ACT score percentiles from 2008-2010 for each composite scaled score. I used data provided by the ACT to assemble this chart and the charts below (for the percentiles for individual sections).

Remember, the percentile score is the percentage of test-takers who scored at or below that scaled score. I.E. below, in 2008, if your composite score was a 32, you scored better than 99% of test-takers:

ACT English Historical Percentiles for 2008-2010

Here I’ve created a table showing the ACT percentiles from 2008-2010 for each English scaled score.

ACT Math Historical Percentiles for 2008-2010

Here I’ve created a table showing the ACT score percentiles from 2008-2010 for each Math scaled score.

ACT Reading Historical Percentiles for 2008-2010

Here I’ve created a table showing the ACT score percentiles from 2008-2010 for each Reading scaled score.

ACT Science Score Historical Percentiles for 2008-2010

Here I’ve created a table showing the ACT  percentiles from 2008-2010 for each Science scaled score.

What’s Next?

Learn more about the ACT and college application process:

• What's a Good ACT Score for Your College?
• ACT Practice Tests: 20-Hour Prep Program
• Low ACT Scores: What Should You Do?