What is the highest ACT score?

Every year, around 1.37 million students take the ACT. Roughly 3,000 of them open their score report and see a 36. The rest wonder: what is the highest ACT score, and what would it actually change for me?

Some students grind for months chasing the perfect composite. Others score a 35 and obsess over whether one more point would unlock Harvard. Parents appear in r/ACT threads convinced that a 36 guarantees automatic admission. None of those stories is quite right.

The truth is more specific. A 36 is the highest ACT score possible, but what it takes to get there changed in 2025. The Enhanced ACT restructured how the composite is calculated, and that shift mathematically changed the path to a perfect score in a way almost no prep book has caught up to yet.

By the end of this post, you will know exactly what a 36 means, how many students actually earn one, how many questions you can miss and still get there, and whether it is worth the grind.

What is the highest ACT score?

The highest ACT score is a composite of 36. Each of the four subject tests (English, Math, Reading, and Science) is scored on a 1-36 scale. The composite score is the average of the section scores, rounded to the nearest whole number. The optional Writing test is scored separately on a 2-12 scale and does not affect the composite.

The 36 composite is considered the perfect score. It places a student in the 100th percentile nationally. For context, a 35 sits at the 99th percentile. A 34 sits at the 98th percentile. The gap between each of these top scores is real but narrow.

If you want to understand how your score compares across different college types, the ACT score calculator at North American Tutors gives you an instant composite estimate based on your section scores.

How is the ACT scored?

Understanding the path to 36 requires understanding how the ACT actually calculates its scores. The system is less intuitive than most students expect.

Raw scores and scale scores

Every ACT section starts with a raw score, which is simply the number of questions you answer correctly. Wrong answers are not penalized. That raw score then converts to a scale score between 1 and 36 through a process called equating. The conversion varies by test administration, which is why two students can miss the same number of questions on different test dates and end up with different scale scores.

This step is the part most students get wrong. The ACT does not grade you against a fixed rubric. It grades you against the statistical difficulty of the specific test you took.

How the composite is calculated

Under the Enhanced ACT, which made the Science section optional starting in 2025, the composite is the average of three required sections: English, Math, and Reading. The average is rounded to the nearest whole number, so 35.5 rounds up to 36. Science, when taken, is scored on the same 1-36 scale and reported separately, but it no longer affects the composite.

Ask Kurtis about perfect scores and he'll tell you exactly which misconception he sees most. With a 36 ACT, a 1570 SAT, and 5 years of one-on-one sessions with 131+ students, he's watched this specific confusion derail test prep for students who were closer to 36 than they realized. His take:

The pattern is seen in students targeting 34-36 who misunderstand the scoring curve.

What the Writing score measures

The optional Writing test is scored by two readers on a 2-12 scale across four domains: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use. A perfect Writing score is 12. The average is around 6-7. It does not count toward the composite, but many colleges require or recommend it. Check each school's requirements before skipping it.

The table below shows the current Enhanced ACT section structure:

How many questions can you miss and still get a 36?

You can miss questions on the ACT and still earn a 36 composite because the test uses scale scores, not raw percentages. On the Enhanced ACT, missing 0-1 questions in English and 0-1 in Math can still yield 36s in those sections, while Reading typically requires a perfect raw score. Because the composite rounds up from 35.5, a combination of 36, 36, and 35 across the three core sections also yields a 36 composite.

This is one of the most searched questions on r/ACT, and for good reason. The answer changes by test date. The numbers below reflect typical conversions, but exact raw-to-scale scores vary by administration.

Note: These are typical ranges based on published score conversion tables. The ACT Resource Hub at North American Tutors has section-by-section prep guides that go deeper on scoring windows for each test.

One practical implication: English and Math are slightly more forgiving than Reading. If a student is targeting 36, those two sections often give a little room. Reading and Science, if taken, are rarely taken.

How many students get a 36 on the ACT?

In the class of 2024, 3,041 students out of 1,374,791 test-takers earned a perfect 36 composite score, according to ACT, Inc.'s annual profile report. That is 0.22% of all students who took the ACT. By comparison, 9,258 students scored a 35 (0.67%) and 11,817 scored a 34 (0.86%). A 36 is not just rare. It is roughly three times as rare as a 35.

To put those numbers in context: if your high school has 400 students, statistically fewer than one person in your graduating class earned a 36 on any given test date. And that rarity gets even more pronounced at specific schools. Harvard, for example, sees applicants where 36s are common enough that the score alone does not differentiate.

The average ACT score for the class of 2025 was 19.4. So a 36 is not just a perfect score. It sits 16.6 points above the national average, placing a student in a category most of their peers will never reach.

The 36 shortcut that vanished: why perfect scores got harder in 2026

This section covers something almost no prep guide or competitor blog has analyzed: how the 2025 Enhanced ACT mathematically changed what it takes to earn a 36. In short, the most common path to a perfect composite no longer exists.

The old 4-section path to 36

Before the 2025 format change, the ACT composite was the average of four sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. To hit 36, a student needed a four-section average of at least 35.5 (which rounds to 36). The combination of 36, 36, 35, and 35 averaged to exactly 35.5, which rounded up to 36. That meant a student could earn two section-level 35s, perform perfectly on the other two, and still achieve a perfect composite.

That path is gone.

The new 3-section math

Under the Enhanced ACT, the composite is the average of only three sections: English, Math, and Reading. Science is optional and reported separately. With just three sections, the rounding math works differently.

A student with section scores of 36, 35, and 35 now averages 35.33, which rounds to 35, not 36. The only combination that reaches a 36 composite under the new system is 36, 36, 35, which averages to 35.67 and rounds to 36.

The table below shows how this changed the scoring math:

What this means for your prep

You now need at least two perfect 36 section scores to earn a 36 composite. You cannot offset a single 35 with other strong sections the way students could under the old format. This raises the bar for anyone targeting perfection because it demands balanced mastery of all three core areas at once, not just one or two.

For STEM-focused students, the ACT Science section still matters in competitive program admissions, even though it no longer counts toward the composite. Engineering, pre-med, and computer science programs at selective universities look at the reported Science score. These students need to optimize both the 3-section composite and their separate Science score.

Frances has been with NAT for 6 years and has worked with 150+ students on ACT prep. She has a way of cutting through the noise on score targets that students describe as a turning point in their prep:

Pattern seen in: students targeting 36 on the Enhanced ACT who prepared using materials from before the 2025 format change.

Is a 36 enough to get into Harvard or Stanford?

A 36 is the highest possible ACT score and is academically competitive at every college in the country. However, it does not guarantee admission anywhere. Stanford's middle 50% range for admitted students is 34-35, and Harvard's is 34-36. Both schools regularly reject applicants with 36s. At this level, essays, extracurriculars, and recommendations determine admission, not a single additional test point.

What the middle 50% ranges actually show

The middle 50% range represents the 25th to 75th percentile of admitted students. When Harvard's range tops out at 36, that does not mean every 36 applicant gets in. It means the top quarter of admitted students scored 36. The bottom quarter scored below 34, and they still got in.

Why a 36 is not a golden ticket

Admissions officers at T20 schools treat 34, 35, and 36 as functionally equivalent. All three scores signal academic readiness at the highest level. Once a student clears that threshold, the rest of the application does the actual differentiating. That means essays, recommendations, demonstrated interest, and extracurriculars carry far more weight than a single composite score.

If your score is already in the 34-36 range, the best use of your time is not another ACT prep session. It is a stronger essay draft. Our college admissions tutors work with students on exactly that next layer.

Should you retake the ACT if you scored a 35?

If you scored a 35, you should not retake the ACT. A 35 is at the 99th percentile and falls within or above the middle 50% range at every university in the country. The difference between a 35 and a 36 is negligible in college admissions decisions. Your time is better spent on essays, extracurriculars, or course rigor than chasing one composite point.

The decision checklist is short:

• Score is 35 and your target schools are any college in the country: do not retake.

• Score is 35 and you want to qualify for a specific scholarship with a 36 cutoff: verify that cutoff actually exists in writing, then decide.

• Score is 34 and your target is Harvard or Stanford: a retake is reasonable if one section is significantly weaker than the others.

• Score is below 30 and your target is a selective school: retake with a structured prep plan.

The math on retaking a 35 for a 36 rarely works out. The effort required to move from a 35 to a 36 is significant, the probability of success is low given how tight the scoring margin is, and the admissions benefit is close to zero. One study found that students who retest improve their superscore by an average of 2.4 points, which is meaningful if you are going from a 28 to a 30, not from a 35 to a 36.

The SAT and ACT are different tests with different strengths. If you are weighing both options, the SAT vs. ACT comparison guide at North American Tutors breaks down which test tends to suit which type of student.

What scholarships can you get with a 36 ACT score?

A 36 ACT score unlocks the highest tier of merit-based scholarships at many universities. Some schools have automatic full-ride programs with explicit score thresholds. Others use competitive selection, where a student strongly applies for 36 positions but does not guarantee an award.

Automatic full-ride scholarships

Some public universities offer automatic full-ride scholarships to students who meet GPA and score thresholds. The University of Alabama's Presidential Elite scholarship requires a 4.0 GPA and a 36 ACT score and covers full tuition plus additional stipends. Several other flagship universities have similar programs, though the specific score cutoffs vary and change year to year.

Large merit awards

Most large merit awards start at 32-34 rather than requiring a perfect 36. A student with a 36 comfortably qualifies for nearly every merit scholarship in the country, but the same student with a 34 or 35 often qualifies for the same awards. The incremental scholarship value of a 36 over a 35 is lower than most students expect.

Always check each institution's Common Data Set and scholarship page directly. Cutoffs shift year to year, and award values vary significantly by school.

Conclusion

The highest ACT score is 36. Only about 3,000 students earn it each year, roughly 0.22% of all test takers. The 2025 Enhanced ACT made it harder to achieve a perfect composite by removing Science from the calculation. You now need at least two section-level 36s to hit the composite, where the old four-section format gave students more room to round up.

If you score a 35, stop retaking. Both scores signal academic excellence at the highest level, and admissions officers at T20 schools treat them the same way. Your time and energy go further on your essays and the rest of your application.

If you are still working toward a 36 or trying to understand where your current score stands, we can help. Schedule your free consultation and we'll match your child with an ACT tutor who has been exactly where you're trying to go. Kurtis scored a 36. He knows the path.

You don't need to grind forever. Sometimes the best choice is knowing when your score is already good enough.