Understanding September ACT Score Release Dates

For students navigating the college application process, understanding the timeline for ACT score releases is crucial. This article provides a comprehensive overview of when to expect your ACT scores, factors that can affect the release date, and what to do once you receive your scores.

ACT Score Release Timeline

Generally, ACT scores are released between 10 and 24 days after the test date. The ACT typically releases scores two weeks after you take the exam. However, it’s important to note that the ACT releases scores in batches, so not every score comes out on exactly the same day. Sometimes, you may have to wait up to eight weeks to get your multiple-choice scores.

2025-2026 ACT Score Release Dates

Here is an overview of the upcoming ACT score release schedule for the 2025-2026 academic year:

February 8, 2025: February 18 - April 4
April 5, 2025: April 15 - May 30
June 14, 2025: June 24 - August 8
July 12, 2025 (except New York): July 22 - September 5
September 6, 2025: September 16 - October 31
October 18, 2025: October 28 - December 12
December 13, 2025: December 23, 2025 - February 6, 2026
February 14, 2026: February 24 - April 10
April 11, 2026: April 21 - June 5
June 13, 2026: June 23 - August 7
July 11, 2026 (except New York): July 21 - September 4

When to Expect Your Scores

Multiple-choice scores: Available two to eight weeks after your ACT test date.
Writing scores: If you took the ACT Writing Test, you’ll be waiting an extra two weeks to receive your complete score. Writing scores usually come out about two weeks after your multiple-choice scores are released.

The absolute earliest you can see your ACT scores is 10 days after your test. Assuming you took the test on a national test date, which is always on a Saturday, you can expect to get your scores the second Tuesday after your test.

Release Time

The ACT releases scores at 12 AM Central Time on a given test’s score release date, which is usually two Fridays after you take the exam. For students on the East Coast, this means that results are available by 1 AM. Those on the West Coast will be able to access them at 10 PM.

Read also: UCF Application Strategies

If it’s after midnight and your scores haven’t appeared yet, go to bed! Your results may not appear for one, two, three, or even seven days after the official release day.

Factors Affecting Score Release Dates

Several factors can influence when your ACT scores are released. Understanding these can help manage expectations and plan accordingly.

Equating Activities

On select test dates, ACT does what it calls “equating activities” to ensure scores represent the same level of skill across test dates. If you take the ACT on an equating test date, expect your scores to take slightly longer to come out - 3-8 weeks after your exam. The October tests takes longer because of equating. Delays are particularly common for the February and October test dates, attributed to the specialized equating process employed during these periods.

Potential Delays

While ACT strives to release scores by the specified dates, delays happen. These delays can be attributed to many factors, such as technical issues or administrative challenges. Here are some common issues that could delay your scores:

Answer documents from your test center arrived late.
You provided inconsistent or incorrect personal information. The “Matching Information” you provided on the answer document (name, date of birth, and Match Number) is not consistent with the Matching Information on your admission ticket. Scores cannot be reported until they can be accurately matched to the correct person.
You provided incomplete or inaccurate test form information on the answer document, or the answer document has not cleared all other scoring accuracy checks.
An irregularity is reported at your test center.
You didn’t pay any or all of your registration fees.

If your ACT results take longer than this, it might mean there's an issue with your ACT score report, like a delay in grading or unclear identifying information.

Read also: College SAT Deadlines

International vs. US Test-Takers

ACT score release dates are the same around the world.

How to Check Your ACT Scores

The fastest way to view your ACT scores is to go online to your ACT account. Scores will appear in your ACT account (the same place where you registered for the ACT). To check your ACT scores, log into your MyACT student account, and under the SCORES tab, you can select your test date to open the online score report.

To check your ACT scores, log in to your ACT account. Click on the SCORES link near the left-hand side of the top menu bar. Then click on your test date. Once you enter your password again, you'll be taken to a page with your ACT results.

If you tested before September 2011, you scores will not be available in MyACT.

Understanding Your ACT Scores

Once the big day arrives, you get your ACT test scores. But what do they mean? You will see your total score, score by section, and the percentile score in the percentiles for your overall score and subscores. This means you will be able to see how your results compare to other students who took the ACT that same day.

Read also: High School College Applications

ACT Score Range

The ACT score range is from 1 to 36. Your composite score is the average of your section scores and is your official ACT result. Colleges may also look at individual section scores or your STEM score (the average of your Math and Science scores).

What is a Good ACT Score?

However, a "good" ACT score can vary depending on the colleges you're applying to. Some colleges have higher average ACT scores for admitted students, while others may have lower averages. A composite score of 34 is a good score for Harvard. It falls within the average score for Harvard students, making it highly competitive. A score of 23 or higher on the ACT Composite means you have scored better than 70% of test takers, putting you in the 70th percentile of testers.

ACT Benchmarks

ACT benchmarks are indicators of your college readiness. But don't stress if you don't reach a particular ACT benchmark. Your composite score is what colleges are more concerned with.

What to Do After Receiving Your Scores

Once you have your ACT results, you'll likely be filled with mixed emotions. But what's the next step?

Sending Your Scores to Colleges

Students have the chance to indicate which colleges they would like to receive their test scores on test day. If you selected schools to receive your scores on your ACT registration, ACT will send the scores directly to up to four colleges for free. After that, you can use your ACT account to send the scores to schools for $19 per report/per school. If you didn’t select four schools during registration, you’ll still have to pay the fee-you don’t get these reports for free retroactively. This can be a bit of a challenge and involve some cost-benefit analysis on your part during registration. Should you take advantage of the free score reports and have ACT send the scores before you even see them? Or wait to ensure that you want to send these scores but pay more after the fact?

In all cases, keep in mind that the ACT doesn’t send scores to colleges until your writing scores are in-about four weeks after your test date. will not send out your ACT scores until your whole test has been scored. cannot send out a score report until your test has been scored.

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.

Students should be aware that when they register for the ACT, they can choose to send their scores to up to four colleges for free. However, if they want to send scores to additional colleges beyond those initial four choices, there are fees involved:

To add a 5th and 6th college choice when registering, there is a $18.50 fee per score report. This must be done before the test date.
After taking the ACT and receiving your scores, you can request additional score reports for $18.50 per college per test date. For example, if you want to send scores from the September test date to 3 additional colleges beyond your original four choices, that would be $55.50 ($18.50 x 3 colleges).

There are also deadlines students should keep in mind:

The deadline to change score recipients without incurring the archive research fee is 12 PM Central Time on the Thursday after your test date.
If you want scores sent from a test date older than 3 years, there is a $30 archive fee per test date per order.

Retaking the ACT

If your ACT score didn't hit the mark you were aiming for, don't fret! You might consider a retake. If you get your ACT scores and you’re not happy with them (whether that’s your composite score or sectional score), you have options. And your best option is to retake the test.

Consider your section scores and percentile rank. If your English or writing scores were low, you might want to focus on improving those areas. Use test prep resources, like practice tests, to help you prepare.

In fact, you don’t have to wait to get your scores to plan for an ACT retake. If you really think you did poorly on the ACT, my best advice would be to continue your ACT prep even before you see the results. If you’re going to retake the ACT, you don’t want to fall out of the habit of studying. Even if you’re relatively confident in your test performance, you may still want to go ahead and sign up to retake the test. Even students who score well the first time may still retake the ACT. When you do get your scores, you can begin to focus your prep on the areas where you struggled.

To improve your composite ACT score by 1 to 4 points, you'll need to put in around 40 hours of smart prep. Increasing your score by more than this requires even more time and energy. The bottom line: if you're able to put in the time and energy to improve your score, then it's worth retaking the ACT.

Understanding Superscoring

Many colleges use a method known as superscoring when evaluating ACT scores. Superscoring is when the college takes the highest scores from each section across all of your ACT attempts. This is why sometimes taking the ACT test more than once can work to your advantage. It gives you an opportunity to focus on improving your scores in specific sections and potentially increase your overall ACT superscore. If you're aiming for colleges that superscore the ACT, they'll consider your highest section scores across all test dates.

Test-Optional Colleges

Some colleges are test-optional, meaning they don't require SAT scores or ACT scores for admission. If you plan to apply to mostly or all test-optional colleges, you might consider withholding your ACT scores from them if you didn’t do as well as you hoped to - or if your scores are considerably lower than the average scores of admitted applicants. This way, your lower-than-expected scores won’t count against you in the admissions process.

Other Application Materials

While ACT scores play a role in college admissions, they're not the only factor that colleges consider. They help validate other parts of your application, like your high school transcript, which carries more weight than a test score. Essays are also becoming increasingly important in the college admissions process. They provide insight into your values, maturity, and goals. Focus on improving other application materials. This way, schools can see other indicators of your skills and achievements.

The ACT exam, like any standardized test, is a snapshot of your abilities at one point in time. The ACT, including the ACT writing test, is just one part of your application. While your ACT scores are important, they're just one piece of the puzzle.

Requesting Score Verification

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.

Cancelling 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.

MyACT Account: Your Central Hub

From the moment a student decides to register for the ACT, the MyACT account becomes the gateway to managing their test preparation, registration details, ACT score release timeline, and college planning resources. It is designed to streamline college admissions, making the process as smooth as possible for students and their families.

Creating and using a MyACT account has several benefits and features that can improve your ACT experience. With a MyACT account, you can:

Access your personalized score insights, including detailed breakdowns of your performance in each section of the ACT.
Explore resources and recommendations tailored to your specific needs, such as study guides and practice materials.
Track your progress over time by tracking your previous test scores and comparing them to your current performance.
Gain access to additional college and scholarship opportunities aligned with your ACT scores and academic goals.

Creating a MyACT account is highly recommended to make the most out of your ACT score reports and access valuable resources.

High School Report

Your high school ACT report provides important information to colleges during the admissions process. Admissions officers use it to:

Assess your academic readiness for college-level coursework.
Evaluate your potential to succeed based on ACT scores and high school grades.
Determine your eligibility for academic scholarships.

While some colleges have adopted test-optional policies, ACT scores still carry weight in admissions decisions and financial aid awards. High school GPA and ACT scores together best predict college performance and graduation. So, your ACT report validates your transcript and demonstrates your abilities to admissions teams.

College Report

Your ACT scores continue to provide value even after you enter college. Academic advisors and program directors use your college ACT report to:

Determine accurate course placement to match your abilities.
Offer tailored academic advising based on your strengths and weaknesses.
Identify any additional support or resources you may need to thrive.

So beyond admissions, your ACT scores play an integral role in setting you up for college success.

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