Can someone break down the ACT percentiles?

Hey everyone, I'm a bit confused about ACT percentiles. How do they work? Are they based on your raw score or your composite? Are they a good way to measure how well I did compared to other test-takers?

The ACT percentiles are derived from the scores of ACT test takers within a chosen time frame - typically the most recent graduating class. While your raw score (the number of questions answered correctly) changes into a scale score (ranging between 1 and 36), percentiles are based on your composite (or scaled) score.

They indicate the proportion of test-takers who scored below you. For instance, if you achieve a composite score of 29 and this is at the 91st percentile, this means you scored as well as or better than 91% of the test-takers.

So suppose you receive a composite score of 31 on your ACT, which roughly translates to the 95th percentile. This would mean that you outscored 95% of the students who took the same test. If you then get a 28 (which is approximately at the 90th percentile), you did better than 90% of your peers.

Keep in mind that ACT percentile charts get updated annually because they're based on the scores of the most recently graduated high school class that took the ACT. This is to ensure they're representative of the current pool of college-bound seniors. In this way, percentiles are indeed a useful tool to estimate how well you performed in relation to other students for your test date.

But don't just rely on percentiles. You should also consider the average ACT scores at the colleges you're interested in to assess how you might stack up against their applicant pool.