What's the Highest Possible ACT Score I Can Get?

Hey peeps, just wanted to know, what's the maximum score I can aim for on my ACT? How rare is it to get such a score and what does it mean?

The perfect ACT score is 36. The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest possible score. Each of the four sections (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science) is also scored on this scale and your composite ACT score is the average of your four section scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.

Getting a 36 on the ACT is quite rare—an incredibly small fraction of students achieve it. In 2020 for example, out of the 1.67 million students who took the ACT, only about 4,200 of them achieved a perfect score, or less than 0.3% of all test-takers.

Scoring a 36 indicates that your responses to most if not all questions in each section were correct. Though it's certainly an achievement, don't stress out if you're not hitting that perfect score. Even at the most selective schools, the difference between how admissions officers view a 35 vs a 36 is negligible.

Furthermore, colleges care about much more than just test scores—things like earning a high GPA, participating in and leading extracurricular activities, writing a compelling essay, and obtaining strong recommendation letters contribute significantly to your overall application.

So, while it's good to aim for the highest score possible, remember that balance is important in college admissions. Especially at the most selective schools, no single credential, even a perfect 36, will guarantee acceptance on its own.

That said, if you want some tips on how to maximize your chances of reaching this rarified air, check out this blog post from CollegeVine, which is specifically for students hoping to hit that perfect 36: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-get-a-perfect-36-act-score/. Happy studying!