
Junior Kaitlyn Ying of Parkway South High recently scored a 36 – the highest possible score – on the ACT college admissions and placement exam.
Nationally, while the actual number of students earning the top score varies from year to year, only around two-tenths of 1% of students who take the ACT earn a top score. In the U.S. high school graduating class of 2018, only 3,741 out of over 1.9 million graduates who took the ACT earned a top composite score of 36. The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science, each scored on a scale of 1–36. A student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. The score for ACT’s optional writing test is reported separately and is not included within the ACT composite score.