If you've taken an ACT practice test, you've probably wondered how the questions you answer on each test section translate to a final score out of 36 points. What is a raw ACT score? What about a scale score? How does one score affect the other?
In this article, we explain what the equating process for the ACT is and give you info on how your raw scores translate to scale scores for each section of the test.
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First off, what do we mean by "raw ACT scores" and "scale ACT scores"?
Your raw score is the total number of questions you get right in a section. This goes for English, Math, Reading, and Science (Writing, however, is scored a bit differently). For example, if you got 70 out of 75 English questions right, your raw English score would be 70.
By contrast, a scale score is the final score you get for each section, on a scale of 1-36. Specifically, it's a translation of your raw score via an equating process developed by ACT, Inc. If you've taken ACT practice tests, you probably noticed that your raw scores don't always translate into the same scale scores.
Through this equating process, ACT, Inc., can account for differences and ultimately ensure that scores are consistent across test dates. This means, for example, that a 30 on the April ACT will represent the same level of skill as a 30 on the June ACT will.
Confused? Let's use an example. Say you took the ACT in September and your friend took a different ACT in October. Both of you got 22 out of 40 questions right on the Reading section, but your friend scored a 21 scale Reading score while you only scored a 19. What gives?
Remember that the same scale scores on different ACTs indicate the same ability. Thus, this 2-point difference doesn't mean that your friend simply lucked out—it means that your friend got a harder ACT Reading section than you did. In other words, because your Reading section was easier, you would've needed to score more raw points (i.e., get more questions right) on it to get the same scale score (21) as your friend.
As you know, equating an ACT raw score to a scale score allows for comparisons between various test versions and all test takers (regardless of what month or year you took the ACT). But how can you know exactly how a raw score will convert into a scale score?
The short answer is, you can't. ACT, Inc., is pretty secretive about its equating process, so there's no way to know for sure how a raw score on one ACT will translate into a scale score.
What's more, since every official ACT test is equated differently, each has its own raw-score-to-scale-score conversion chart. For example, here are the conversion charts for the 2018-19 and 2017-2018 official ACT practice tests (from the "Preparing for the ACT" PDF):
Scale Score
English
