The PreACT is scored 1–35 (the PreACT 9 Secure 1–32, the PreACT 8/9 1–30). Since Fall 2026 your Composite comes from English, Math and Reading; Science, if your school or district gives it, gets its own score and feeds the STEM score. Each section is also rated against ACT's readiness benchmark, and your report gives predicted ACT subject and Composite score ranges.
PreACT scoring is built to do one thing well: tell you, while the stakes are still low, where you would probably land on the ACT. To read your score correctly you need to understand four moving parts — the 1–35 scale (and its variants across the PreACT suite), the composite built from your English, Math and Reading scores, the predicted ACT subject and Composite score ranges printed on every report, and the national rank and benchmark context wrapped around all of it. This guide walks through each in order, including the Fall 2026 change that reshaped how the composite is calculated.
The standard PreACT, taken in grades 9–10, is scored on a 1 to 35 scale — English, Math and Reading each get a score from 1 to 35, and those three combine into a composite on the same scale. If your school or district gives the optional Science section, it gets its own 1–35 score too. The full ACT, by contrast, runs from 1 to 36.
The PreACT suite has four versions, and each reports on a scale matched to its grade level:
| Test | Grade Level | Composite Scale |
|---|---|---|
| PreACT 8/9 | Grades 8–9 | 1–30 |
| PreACT | Grades 9–10 | 1–35 |
| PreACT Secure | Grade 10 (state/district, online) | 1–35 |
| PreACT 9 Secure | Grade 9 (state/district, online) | 1–32 |
| ACT | College admissions | 1–36 |
Each PreACT is calibrated to the grade it serves rather than to the end of high school, and the score ceiling reflects that earlier calibration. A 35 on the PreACT means you mastered everything the PreACT covers — it does not certify that you would score a 36 on the full ACT, which draws on more advanced material. The same logic explains why the PreACT 9 Secure tops out at 32 and the PreACT 8/9 at 30: they are aimed at younger students, further still from ACT-level content.
Since Fall 2026, the Composite is built from your English, Math and Reading scores. ACT doesn't publish the exact method on its public pages; it's best estimated as the rounded average of English, Math and Reading (the way the ACT Composite works): add the three, divide by three and round to the nearest whole number. Science, if your school or district gives it, gets its own score and feeds the STEM score. Reports from 2025–26 and earlier averaged all four sections. There's no weighting and no bonus for any particular section. It is the same mechanism the ACT uses for its own composite, which we walk through in how the ACT composite is calculated.
| Example | E | M | R | Average | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean average | 21 | 19 | 23 | 63 ÷ 3 = 21.0 | 21 |
| Rounds down | 21 | 19 | 24 | 64 ÷ 3 = 21.33 | 21 |
| Rounds up | 22 | 19 | 24 | 65 ÷ 3 = 21.67 | 22 |
Notice what rounding means in practice: in the second example, raising any one section by a single point lifts the sum from 64 to 65 and the Composite from 21 to 22. When you are close to a rounding boundary, one more correct answer in your weakest section can move the headline number. To experiment with your own section combinations, use the PreACT score calculator.
Because every section carries identical weight, a point gained in your weakest section is worth exactly as much as a point gained in your strongest — and it is almost always easier to earn. Moving a section score from 17 to 19 typically means fixing a handful of recurring mistakes; moving one from 27 to 29 means mastering the hardest material on the test. For most students, the fastest route to a higher composite runs straight through their lowest section score, which is exactly the kind of targeting the section-level breakdown on your report makes possible.
Since the Fall 2026 redesign (spring 2026 for PreACT Secure and PreACT 9 Secure), the composite is computed from English, Math, and Reading only, and Science is an optional section that your school or district decides whether to give. The average-and-round mechanism is the same — there are simply three scores in the average instead of four.
This follows the Enhanced ACT, which launched online in April 2025 and on paper in September 2025 and made Science optional there first. The PreACT's job is to preview the ACT, so when the ACT's composite stopped including Science, the PreACT followed. The redesign also changed question counts, timing, passage length and the number of math answer choices; the full picture is in our guide to the PreACT changes for Fall 2026.
Beyond the composite and section scores, the PreACT report adds two derived numbers that the raw sections alone don't give you.
If your school or district gives the Science section, Science gets its own score and the report also includes a STEM score, built from your Math and Science scores, which summarizes your performance on the quantitative and scientific side of the test in a single number. It is a quick read on whether math- and science-heavy coursework — and eventually STEM-leaning majors — line up with where your skills currently are. It appears alongside your section scores on the report.
The headline feature of PreACT reporting is the set of predicted ACT subject and Composite score ranges: estimates of where you might score on the actual ACT. (The PreACT 8/9 and PreACT 9 Secure also give predicted PreACT ranges.) Three things matter when reading them:
Each is a range, not a number. The prediction is deliberately expressed as a band, because a single test on a single day cannot pin your future score to one value.
It is a projection, not a promise. The range estimates a trajectory from your current performance. Students who prep deliberately routinely beat their range; students who coast can fall short of it.
It is a planning tool. Compare the top of your predicted Composite range to the ACT score your target colleges expect. If there is a gap, that gap — divided by the months you have before junior-year testing — is your prep agenda. For a walkthrough of the full report, including where each of these numbers appears, see how to read your PreACT score report.
Your report includes a US Rank for each score: the percentage of PreACT takers in your grade and season who scored at or below you. That is your percentile. For a quick comparison, ACT also publishes the national average Composite for each grade and season.
| Test and grade | Fall average | Spring average |
|---|---|---|
| PreACT 8/9, 8th grade | 15.9 | 16.6 |
| PreACT 8/9, 9th grade | 16.5 | 16.9 |
| PreACT, 9th grade | 16.4 | 17.0 |
| PreACT, 10th grade | 17.3 | 18.0 |
| PreACT, 11th grade | 18.6 | Not offered |
Two things stand out. First, the averages sit in the 16–19 range, below the scores most selective-college applicants aim for on the ACT, which is expected for a test taken one to two years earlier. Second, averages rise about half a point from fall to spring (0.4 to 0.7) and roughly a point from grade to grade, so always compare yourself with your own grade and season. For how to turn these numbers into a personal target, see what counts as a good PreACT score.
Treat the percentile as context, not a verdict. Because scores drift upward naturally as students progress through school, your percentile among current PreACT takers is a snapshot of where you stand today, against students at the same stage. It pairs with the predicted ACT ranges: the percentile tells you where you are, the predicted ranges tell you where that position points. Together they answer the only question the PreACT is built to answer — how much ground, if any, sits between you and your ACT goal.
Alongside percentiles, your report marks each subject against a college-readiness benchmark — a per-subject indicator of whether your current performance is on track for readiness in the corresponding first-year college course area. Each of your section scores is shown relative to its benchmark, so you can see at a glance which subjects are on pace and which are lagging.
Benchmarks answer a different question than percentiles do. A percentile compares you to other students; a benchmark compares you to a fixed readiness standard. It is entirely possible to be above average nationally and still below a benchmark in a subject — that combination is precisely the kind of early warning the PreACT exists to deliver, while there is still ample time to act on it.
ACT sorts each section score into three Readiness Levels: On Target (about a 50% or better chance of meeting the ACT College Readiness Benchmark by 11th or 12th grade), Close to Target (25–50%) and In Need of Intervention (under 25%). The cut scores depend on grade and season. Enter your scores to see yours:
Is my PreACT score on target?
Enter the section scores from your report. You get your Composite, how it compares with the national average for your grade, and ACT's readiness level for each section.
Leave blank if your school didn't give Science.
PreACT is for grades 9–10 (PreACT 8/9 for grades 8–9); the 11th-grade option uses ACT's fall figures for schools that test 11th graders. Took the PreACT Secure (10th grade, 1–35)? Choose PreACT for an approximate check. The PreACT 9 Secure (1–32) isn't covered here, so use the readiness levels on your report.
Composite 17 (English, Math and Reading averaged). The national average for 10th graders testing in the fall is 17.3, so you are 0.3 below it. 2025–26 averages were four-section Composites that included Science, so treat comparisons with this year's English/Math/Reading Composite as approximate.
| Section | Your score | Readiness Benchmark | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 18 | 14 | On Target |
| Math | 16 | 19 | In Need of Intervention (3 short) |
| Reading | 18 | 20 | Close to Target (2 short) |
Start with Math: it is the furthest from its benchmark (3 points). Reaching a benchmark means about a 50% chance of meeting ACT's College Readiness Benchmark of 22 in Math by 11th or 12th grade.
Last verified against ACT's PreACT Technical Manual, PreACT 8/9 Technical Bulletin (August 2026) and 2025–26 national averages: 2026-10-19. Your report's US Rank is your exact percentile.
Sources: ACT PreACT Technical Manual (August 2026), Table 5.3; PreACT 8/9 Technical Bulletin (August 2026), Table 3.2; ACT PreACT Scores.
Just as important as what PreACT scores tell you is what they aren't used for. PreACT scores aren't used in college admissions. Students who take the PreACT or PreACT 8/9 on paper can choose to share their profile information with colleges and scholarship agencies, but that's optional. For most students the PreACT is deliberately low-stakes: it exists to inform you, your family, and your school. (Some districts do use Secure results for placement, so check how yours uses them.)
That has a liberating consequence: for most students, a weak PreACT score doesn't hurt you. It costs you nothing except the illusion that you were further along than you were — and it hands you a section-by-section map of what to fix. Because the PreACT is fully aligned with ACT content, everything you do to fix those weaknesses is direct ACT prep, and ACT prep materials work for the PreACT in turn.
Everything on the report points forward. The section scores tell you what to study; the benchmarks tell you which subjects are off pace; the predicted ranges tell you how far your current trajectory carries you; on the PreACT and PreACT 8/9, the interest inventory even connects your results to career exploration. None of it is a judgment — all of it is input to a plan.
The one mistake to avoid is ignoring the report entirely. A diagnostic only pays off if you act on it — which is why the predicted ranges, benchmarks, and section scores are worth an honest twenty minutes of review, ideally with a counselor or parent, before they disappear into a backpack.