Omniac Attack!

Hey Students!

We're right in the middle of ACT season:  the October 22nd results should be in very soon and December 10th will be here before you know it.  And as you start to get your scores back and start to look at where you want to send your scores, the better you understand what the scores are, the better decisions you'll be able to make.  There are two main things you should keep in mind when evaluating your scores:  What the scores are (and are not) and milestone scores.

The first thing you need to really understand is that ACT scores are not objective evaluations on how well you know a particular subject.  It's a comparison of how you did amidst a sample group.  An old joke goes that if a bear is chasing you and a friend, you don't need to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friend.  It's the same way on the ACT.  Since the ACT scores on a bell curve, shooting for an arbitrary number of correct answers on the test is actually less important than trying to score better than more people.

The important thing to take away from this is to not freak out if you find that the test is much more difficult than you expected.  If a particular section is harder for you, it's probably going to be harder for most other people as well.  So, your percentile isn't likely to go down by much.  Alternatively, if you're very good at a subject, you could find your percentile going up as other people struggle more than you.  

Obviously, the higher your score is, the better.  But some scores mean a little more to colleges, so if you're close to those, it's even more important to try to go up.  

The first major milestone to hit is 18 or 19.  Depending on what your school is, or what section you're on, getting an 18 or a 19 will exempt you from remedial classes.  At UNM, for example, it takes a 19 on the English and Math sections to become exempt from those respective remedial classes, and an 18 on Reading.

Next, is a 20, which represents the 50th percentile.  Although large, public universities will readily take students who test below the 50th percentile for instate students, since colleges look very poor when their averages are below the 50th percentile, this is a very important number for students applying to out-of-state colleges.

One of the more important milestone scores is a 24, which is the 75th percentile.  This score can often grant automatic admission for students applying to larger, public universities, even out of state!  In addition, a 24 is often one of the lower scores required to receive merit-based scholarships and out-of-state tuition waivers.  Also, some selective, private schools (but certainly not all) will begin evaluating applications with this score.

The 90th percentile, or a 27, is the next important milestone.  At this score, some of the larger and most extensive merit-based scholarships (such as Presidential or Regents scholarships) are within reach.  In addition, many more selective, privates schools become serious possibilities with this score.

Finally, a 32 (and above) represents the 99th percentile.  It's important to note, that, to a college, there is functionally no difference between a 32 and a 36.  So, if you get anything in this range...Fantastic!  You have the most options open to you.

As application season draws towards a close, it's super important to know how colleges treat ACT scoes.  And as you plan your test prep for December, it's equally important to know which scores will get the biggest bang for your buck.

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