Retrieving ACT Scores from Previous Years: A Comprehensive Guide

For many students, the ACT (American College Testing) is a crucial step in the college application process. Whether you're a recent graduate, someone returning to education after a break, or even a professional seeking to showcase your skills, accessing your past ACT scores might be necessary. This article provides a detailed guide on how to retrieve your ACT scores from previous years, covering various scenarios and important considerations.

Why You Might Need Old ACT Scores

Several situations might require you to retrieve your ACT scores from previous years:

College Applications After a Break: If you took time off after high school and are now applying to colleges, you'll likely need to submit your ACT scores.
Reapplying to Schools: If you left college and are reapplying, your previous ACT scores might be required.
Employment Opportunities: Some employers, particularly in fields like investment banking and consulting, may request standardized test scores as part of their application process.
Personal Assessment: You might simply be curious about your past performance and want to review your scores for personal insight.

Accessing ACT Scores Online

ACT scores are available online for tests taken from September 2011 to the present. Here's how to access them:

Create or Access Your ACT Account:
- If you have an existing account, log in using your credentials.
- If you don't have an account or can't remember your login information, you may need to create a new account or recover your old one using the "Forgot Your Password" option. You'll need to know your ACT ID number in order to access your scores. You can find your ACT ID number on your admission ticket and official ACT score report, which was sent to the high school and colleges you requested.
View Available Test Dates:

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- Once you're logged in, click on "Your Test Dates and Scores" to view your available test dates. If your scores are from the past two years, they should be available online.
- You'll be able to see a list of your past test dates, and you can click on each date to view the scores.

Requesting Archived ACT Scores

If your ACT scores are more than two years old, they might be archived. Here's how to request them:

Archived Score Report Request Form: Fill out the Archived Score Report Request Form on the ACT website.
Fees: Keep in mind that there may be a nonrefundable archive fee associated with retrieving archived scores to cover the additional cost of searching and accessing databases to retrieve and send an archived score. As you might've guessed, fees are unfortunately higher if you're trying to send old ACT scores.
Processing Time: Processing these requests can take several weeks. A score report is always processed within one week after your request is received.

Important Considerations for Archived Scores

Scores Before September 2011: If you tested before September 2011, you can't get your scores online. can use microfiche to find scores from as far back as the fall of 1966. Again, have as much identifying information as possible on hand to help the agent find your score.
ACT ID Number: To access your scores, you'll need to know your ACT ID number. You can find this number on your admission ticket and official ACT score report, which was sent to the high school and colleges you requested.

Understanding Your ACT Score Report

Your ACT score report includes several important components:

Subject Scores: Scores for each of the four subject areas: English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science.
Composite Score: The average of your four subject scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.
Superscore (Future): Starting in April 2025, students who choose to take the online ACT test will have their ACT Superscore calculated using a new method that includes only English, math, and reading. For everyone else, this change will take effect in September 2025. We’ll continue to show your highest scores for each subject section along with the test date, but your Composite score on your Superscore report will be based on the new English, math, and reading.
Writing Score (If Applicable): If you took the optional writing test, your score for the essay will also be included.

Sending Your ACT Scores to Institutions

In addition to the four institutions examinees selected upon registering, they can send scores to others, even after testing. Here's what to keep in mind when sending your scores:

Score Recipients: Once all scores for a test event are available, they are sent to institutions you elect in MyACT.
Superscore Option: When you select score recipients, you’ll have the option of sending either score reports from the specific test event or you can choose to send your superscore.
College Codes: A college only receives your score report when you list its correct ACT College Code on your score request. If you chose to use the 4 free reports you got with ACT registration, check the college codes you listed by looking at your copy of the score report. Use valid ACT codes only. The College Code List and the Congressional Code List are available online to provide you with the most updated information. We can send your report only to the office designated by the college or agency, not to any other individual or office.
Score Report Contents: Reports you request will include the ACT ID currently on your record.
Score Choice: You can currently send scores from test events from September 2011 to current, as well as an available superscore. Scores from September 2018 to current are available to be sent to a high school as an additional score report. If your superscore is from these dates, you may also request to send your superscore.

Understanding the ACT Superscore

The ACT Superscore combines your highest section scores from multiple test administrations to create the best possible composite score. Here's how it works:

Highest Section Scores: ACT takes your highest scores from each of the four sections (English, Math, Reading, and Science) across all your test dates.
Composite Calculation: These highest section scores are then averaged to calculate your Superscore.
Tiebreakers: For sending a Superscore: If the scores are the same (e.g., your highest subject level mathematics scores across multiple tests are equal) then the most recent will be chosen for sending your superscore. ACT does not compare your reporting categories when selecting the best score.
New Method (Future): Starting in April 2025, students who choose to take the online ACT test will have their ACT Superscore calculated using a new method that includes only English, math, and reading. For everyone else, this change will take effect in September 2025. We’ll continue to show your highest scores for each subject section along with the test date, but your Composite score on your Superscore report will be based on the new English, math, and reading. This means a student who got their highest English their first time testing and on a legacy administration, their highest math on their second legacy administration, and their highest reading on the new enhanced ACT, would see those highest scores used to calculate their ACT Superscore Composite after the new enhanced ACT administration.

What to Do If Your Scores Are Missing

There’s nothing quite like the white-knuckle feeling you get when you realize your ACT scores might be missing. But before you lose yourself in missing-score panic, let me reassure you that in the vast majority of cases the problem is small and easily solved. Score reports are posted to your online ACT student account - usually within 2 to 8 weeks after your test date. If you're checking 2 weeks after your test date and still don't see your scores, you should know that ACT is working as hard as it can to get your scores to you. If it's been 8 weeks since you took the test, your scores might be taking longer because of a very solvable answer sheet issue.

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Here are some potential reasons why your scores might be delayed or missing:

Answer Sheet Issues: Sometimes, your answer sheet might have arrived late from your test center. Most often the problem is that the "Matching Information" you provided on the answer document isn't exactly the same as the Matching Information on your admission ticket, or maybe some of that information is missing.
Unpaid Fees: The last possibility is that you still owe registration fees to ACT. If this is the case, try to get the money to them as soon as you can.
Writing Section: The writing section of the ACT takes longer to score than the multiple choice section. Even if your multiple choice scores have been posted but your writing score hasn't, it doesn’t mean that your writing score is missing.
Testing Irregularities: Do you remember there being any distractions or odd goings-on at your test center? Also, if you or someone else complained about something that happened during testing or at the test site, ACT has to look into this.
Lost Answer Sheets: Every now and again ACT answer sheets just up and disappear seemingly into the vacuum of space. For example, ACTs were lost in at least two places on the June 13 test date. In Kings Park, NY, 61 tests vanished from Kings Park High School despite the test being administered by the ACT itself.

Steps to Take If Your Scores Are Missing

Check Your Online Account: Ensure that your scores haven't been posted to your online ACT account.
Contact ACT: Contact ACT customer service to inquire about the status of your scores.
Verify Matching Information: Double-check that the information you provided on your answer sheet matches the information on your admission ticket. You can only request a correction to the identifying information on records for test dates in which the archive fee does not apply.
Pay Outstanding Fees: If you owe any registration fees, pay them as soon as possible.
Contact Colleges: If your target college claims to have not received your scores, calmly and respectfully ask them to double check whether your scores are actually already there.

Cancelling ACT Scores

ACT reserves the right to cancel test scores when there is reason to believe the scores are invalid. Outside of State testing and District testing, you may request to cancel scores for a particular test date. Contact us online and we will provide you a form to complete and return to us.

Verifying Your ACT Scores

You can ask ACT to verify your multiple-choice and/or your writing test scores up to 12 months after your test date. For the writing test, ACT will verify that your essay was scored by two independent, qualiﬁed readers and by a third reader in the event that the two scores differed by more than one point in any domain. ACT will also verify that your essay was properly captured and displayed to readers. If a scoring error is discovered, your scores will be changed and corrected reports will be released to you and all previous score report recipients at no charge. We recommend contacting us within three months of receiving your score report. If an error is our responsibility and requires you to retest, there will be no fee.

Additional Information and Resources

ACT Website: The official ACT website is the best resource for information about accessing and sending your scores.
College Board: If you have access to a different score report (SAT, GRE, or Praxis Core), we recommend using that report. Follow the instructions to send SAT scores through your College Board account. Accept the message about ordering older score reports. Follow through the prompts to select the institutions to send your scores and information to, indicating which scores to send for each recipient. Rush reporting is typically available for older SAT scores. There is an additional rush fee plus the score reporting fee for each report and the retrieval fee for processing the archived scores. Note: Check with your college before you order rush reports.

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