US students' ACT scores lowest in 30 years

US ACT scores of American students are 19.5/36, down for the sixth consecutive year and the lowest in 30 years, in the context of many universities removing this test from admissions.

Statistics released by American College Testing (ACT), the test’s organizer, last month showed that the average score of this year’s test takers dropped 0.3 points compared to last year, reaching 19.5/36 points. This is also the lowest score since 1991.

Along with the SAT, the ACT is a standardized test that has been widely used for college and university admissions in the US for the past few decades, consisting of 4 subjects: English, Math, Reading and Science. Each test is scored on a 36-point scale. The highest score in each subject will be added, averaged and rounded to get the candidate's ACT score.

In each subject, the average scores for Math, Reading, and Science all dropped 0.3 to 0.4 points this year compared to last year, to 18.6, 19, 20.1, and 19.6, respectively. This is the sixth consecutive year that the average ACT scores of American students have decreased, both overall and on individual tests.

Compared to the ACT’s benchmark, only the English test had a higher average score. Overall, only 20.8% of students met the benchmark on all four tests (down 1.3% from last year); while the number of students below the benchmark was 43.3%, up 1.7%.

Janet Godwin, CEO of ACT, said the number of 12th graders scoring below the standard ACT is increasing, even as the average grade point average (GPAs) of American students tends to increase.

ACT Test	Benchmark	Average score 2023	Difference
English	18	18.6	+0.6
Mathematics	22	19	-3
Reading comprehension	22	20.1	-1.9
Science	23	19.6	-3.4

The average ACT score of students has dropped as many US universities have dropped standardized test requirements from their applications. The University of California system, the largest university in the US, has required the SAT and ACT since 2021. In March 2023, Columbia University became the first Ivy League school to stop using SAT or ACT scores in its admissions process.

According to the Center for Fairness and Integrity in the US, more than 1,900 universities will not require applicants to submit standardized test scores for the fall 2024 admissions cycle.

That is why, although 1.39 million candidates took the ACT this year, an increase of 40,000 compared to last year, the head of the ACT organization said that the number will hardly recover to pre-pandemic levels (1.9-2 million).

Huy Quan ( According to AP, ACT, New York Post, Daily Mail)

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