IOWA CITY, Iowa—Superscoring, a much-anticipated ACT test option to increase students’ opportunities for college admissions and scholarships, is now available from ACT, the nonprofit that develops and administers the ACT test.

ACT announced today that it will provide an automatically calculated ACT Superscore to all students who have taken the ACT test more than once from September 2016 to current day. A student must have scores from at least two test administrations in their MyACT account for ACT to calculate a superscore—the average of the four best subject scores (English, math, reading and science) across all ACT test events.

Extensive research suggests that—among students who take the ACT more than once—superscoring is the best scoring method for predicting how students will perform in their college courses. This is true across income level, race/ethnicity, gender, and other subgroups, meaning students from traditionally underserved populations may benefit most from superscoring. Students who qualify for the ACT Fee Waiver Program are encouraged to retest and send their superscores using the benefits of the program. This includes four ACT test waivers to take the ACT for free and unlimited score reports to send to colleges and institutions.

“We’re so pleased to provide a ray of sunshine to students with this launch, especially after a difficult year that took so much from students, educators, and families,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin. “We also encourage our partners in higher education to consider adding superscoring to their score-use policies for the benefit it provides to students and given the strong validity evidence linking superscores to first-year grades.”

ACT superscoring and other enhancements to the ACT test were postponed due to COVID-19. ACT prioritized building testing capacity for students in need of full ACT scores for admission and scholarship applications. This allowed test centers to focus on providing a safe and socially distant paper administration of the ACT, resulting in more than one million students earning test scores since June 2020, despite the pandemic.

For more information about superscoring, visit www.act.org/superscoring and watch the following ACT Superscore Q&A video featuring ACT researcher, Krista Mattern.

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Grounded in more than 60 years of research, ACT is a trusted leader in college and career readiness solutions. Each year, ACT serves millions of students, job seekers, schools, government agencies and employers in the US and around the world with learning resources, assessments, research and credentials designed to help them succeed from elementary school through career. 

Dig Deeper

• The Impact of Superscoring on the Distribution of ACT Scores
• Does Superscoring Increase Subgroup Differences?
• Predicting Students' Chances of Completing a Degree: How Does Superscoring Compare to Other Scoring Methods When Applicants Retest?
• How Should Colleges Treat Multiple Admissions Test Scores?