Using Your PreACT Results

2024

2025

Using Your Pre A C T or

Pre A C T 8/9 Results

What’s Inside

• Understanding Your Results 2

• What Your Scores Mean 3

• How Do You Compare with Other Students Who Tested? 6

• Your Plans for High School and Beyond 7

• Compare Your Scores to College and Readiness Benchmarks 8

• Your College Readiness Action Plan 9

• Your Education and Career Journey 9

• Building Your Skills 13

For more information, see www.actstudent.org

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www.act.org

Student Report: The PreACT

and PreACT

8/9 Student Report

includes your composite, subject, and STEM scores; predicted

ACT score ranges, the indicator of Progress Toward ACT

National

Career Readiness Certicate

(NCRC

); US Rank, Detailed Results,

and Item Response Analysis.

Understanding Your Results

Your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Student Report contains a lot of information

about your skills, interests, plans, and goals. Use this guide, along with

your report, to get a better sense of where you are, where you might

want to go, and how to get there.

How Am I Doing So Far?

Your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Student Report shows your relative

strengths and weaknesses in four subject areas important for success

in college: English, math, reading, and science. Ask your counselor how

you can improve in areas where you are not as strong.

What Are My Plans and Goals After High School?

When you took Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9, you answered questions about

the courses you are taking or plan to take in high school, your career

interests, and your plans after high school. This information will help

you see if you need to change your educational plans in order for you to

meet your goals.

Am I on Target for College?

Your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Student Report shows you how well you are

learning the skills you’ll need to be ready for college. Most likely, you

have learned some of these skills better than others.

Use your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Student Report to help you strengthen

those skills that you still need to work on. Visit http://www.act.org/

content/act/en/students-and-parents.html for more information on how

to continue your College and Career planning.

What Your Scores Mean

For Pre A C T, your scores are between 1 (the lowest score you can receive)

and 35 (the highest score you can receive). Pre A C T takes the number

of questions you got right on each test and translates it into a number

between 1 and 35 (called a “scale score”).

For Pre A C T 8/9, your scores are between 1 (the lowest score you can

receive) and 30 (the highest score you can receive). Similarly, Pre A C T

8/9 takes the number of questions you got right, of the items that

count toward your scores, in each test and translates it into a number

between 1 and 30. Just like grades, your scores tell you how well you did

on each test.

Score Ranges

Because no test can measure educational development with absolute

precision, it’s best to think of each of your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 scores

as a range rather than as a precise point. Your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9

score ranges are shown on your Student Report by the colored boxes

on the graph below your scores.

The heavy line within the colored boxes is your calculated scale score.

The graph also includes light gray lines with a number next to it. These

are the Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Readiness Benchmarks.

Composite Scores

Your Composite score is simply the average of the English, math,

reading, and science test scores (rounded to a whole number). In the

same way your overall grade point average in school shows how well

you are doing across all your different classes, your Pre A C T or Pre A C T

8/9 Composite score shows how well you did across the entire Pre A C T

or Pre A C T 8/9 test.

STEM Score

Your STEM score is the average of the math and science test scores.

You can compare your STEM score to the Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 STEM

Readiness Benchmark to see if you are on target to be ready for rst-

year college courses in science, technology, engineering, and math

(STEM).

Your Predicted ACT Score Ranges

Pre A C T 8/9, Pre A C T, and the ACT

test cover the same subject areas.

Pre A C T 8/9 is designed for 8th and 9th graders, Pre A C T is designed for

10th graders, and the ACT is designed for 11th and 12th graders.

Together, the three assessments measure your college readiness skills

as you progress through school. Your Pre A C T 8/9 and Pre A C T scores can

be used to predict how you are likely to do if you take the ACT as an 11th

grader.

You can use these predicted score ranges to see if you are on target

to achieve the scores you want by the time you take the ACT later in

high school. Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 can help you determine if there are

subject areas where taking additional courses or gaining additional

skills might improve your preparation for college.

Pre A C T

Pre A C T 8/9

Progress Toward a Certicate

Progress Toward the ACT

National Career Readiness Certicate

(NCRC

) provides information about your level of career readiness based

on your Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 composite score. More specically, this

indicator provides an estimate of the ACT NCRC that students with your

Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Composite score are likely to obtain at 11th grade.

The ACT NCRC is an assessment- based credential that documents

foundational work skills important for job success across industries and

occupations. Visit www.act.org/NCRC-indicator to learn more.

How Do You Compare with Other

Students Who Tested?

Next to Progress Toward the ACT National Career Readiness Certicate,

you will nd the percentile ranks of your scores (US Rank). The

percentile ranks can help you understand how your scores compare

to the scores of other students in the United States who tested. The

percentile ranks are the percentage of students who earned a score

equal to or lower than your score. In the example above, the percentile

rank for English is 70%. This means that the student scored as high or

higher than 70% of students in the United States who took the Pre A C T

test. The same comparisons are made in the Pre A C T 8/9 Student Report

Your Detailed Results

Below your predicted ACT score ranges, you will nd a list of topics―

also known as reporting categories―that were covered on each of the

four test sections: English, math, reading, and science. Next to each

topic is the number of questions you answered correctly and the total

number of questions related to that topic.

The report also shows the percentage of the questions you answered

correctly for each topic. The bar graph helps you see your topics with

the highest and lowest percent correct, and can help you understand

your areas of strength and weakness.

Your Detailed PreACT Results

The scores below represent your performance on reporting categories measured by the test. Reporting category designations are provided to help you to start to focus on

strengths and weaknesses. Categories with only a few items may be less representative of your overall performance in that category.

Percent CorrectCorrect/ Total† Percent CorrectCorrect/Total

MATH

Preparing for Higher Math

• Number & Quantity

• Algebra

• Functions

• Geometry

• Statistics & Probability

Integrating Essential Skills

Modeling

SCIENCE

Interpretation of Data

Scientiﬁc Investigation

Evaluation of

Models, Inferences &

Experimental Results

ENGLISH

Production of Writing

Knowledge of Language

Conventions of

Standard English

READING

Key Ideas & Details

Craft & Structure

Integration of

Knowledge & Ideas

13/21

3/3

3/5

4/5

2/5

1/3

7/15

4/10

6/12

6/10

2/8

62%

100%

60%

80%

40%

33%

47%

40%

50%

60%

25%

10/14

5/7

14/24

10/14

4/8

2/3

71%

58%

71%

50%

67%

Your Plans for High School and Beyond

When thinking about what courses you should take, consider not

only the number of courses you take, but also the content, level, and

challenge of those courses.

Compare Your Courses to Core

Core is a suggested minimum set of college preparatory courses to be

taken in high school.

So, what courses should you be taking as part of the core? Following,

are the minimum number of courses as recommended by A Nation at

Risk, the prominent report on American education from the National

Commission on Excellence in Education:

• 4 years of English

• 3 years of math

• 3 years of laboratory science

• 3 years of social studies

When you took Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9, you were asked about the

courses you plan to take in high school. This section of your Student

Report compares your plans to Core recommendations. In the example

below, this student should plan to take at least one more year of math,

social studies, and science to meet Core. Talk to your counselor if your

high school course plans fall short of Core.

Successfully completing additional courses like speech, trigonometry,

calculus, physics, and advanced history can result in higher ACT scores.

This means you’re more likely to do well in typical rst-year college

courses.

Compare Your Scores to College and

Readiness Benchmarks

A college education can open many doors for you. In fact, most jobs

(and almost all high-paying jobs) require some education or technical

training after high school. While college may seem a long way off, you

can be preparing now by taking (and working hard in) challenging core

courses in high school. This way, you’ll have the best chance to learn the

skills you need to be ready for college.

Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Readiness Benchmarks

How can you tell if you’re on target for college? Your Pre A C T or Pre A C T

8/9 results give you an early indication of how likely you are to be ready

for college-level work if your academics continue at the current pace.

ACT has identied benchmark scores that reect the foundation you

are developing for the skills you will need by the time you nish high

school.

Look again at the graph on the rst page of your Student Report that

shows your scores for each test. Compare your score ranges (the colored

boxes) to the Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Readiness Benchmarks (the gray

lines with numbers).

Students that score at or above the Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 Readiness

Benchmarks in English, math, and science are likely to be ready to do

well in entry-level college courses in these subjects when they graduate

from high school.

Students scoring at or above the reading benchmark are likely to be

developing the level of reading skills they will need in all of their college

courses. Of course, this assumes students will continue to work hard

and take challenging courses throughout high school.

Your College Readiness Action Plan

Remember, you still have time to improve your skills before you

graduate from high school, but you need to be sure you have a plan for

your remaining high school years:

• Look at how your score ranges compare to the Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9

Readiness Benchmarks on your Student Report.

{

Are your score ranges at or above the benchmark scores? If so, you

are doing well, but keep working hard. There is still a lot you need

to learn.

{

Are your score ranges below the benchmark scores? It’s important

to start taking action now. Talk to your teachers or counselor about

how you can improve in these areas.

{

Remember, there is still time to get on target. Review the

suggestions for improving your skills on the back of your report.

• Make sure you are taking the recommended number and level of

core courses.

• Begin thinking about what you would like to study in college.

Your Education and Career Journey

It’s not too soon to begin exploring possible careers, but there are

thousands of occupations in the work world. With so many to explore,

where do you begin? Your Student Report helps you start by focusing

on a few Career Areas (groups of similar occupations) related to your

interests. Take a look at the Your Education and Career Journey section

of your score report.

The Career Map

Exploring careers is easier if you have a good map. The Career Map can

give you a sense of direction. The Map shows how Career Areas differ in

their involvement with four basic work tasks:

• People: People you help, serve, care for, or sell things to

• Data: Facts, numbers, les, and business procedures

• Things: Machines, tools, living things, and materials (like food, wood,

or metal)

• Ideas: Knowledge, insights, and new ways of expressing something

(using words, music, etc.)

These four work tasks are the four “compass points” of the Map. For

example, occupations in Career Area C (Management) mostly involve

working with people and data, so it is located in the upper left part of

the Map, as are other Career Areas involving people and data. On the

other side of the Map, Career Area P (Natural Science & Technologies)

mostly involves working with ideas and things.

The Career Map

Your Interests

• Interest inventory: Take a look at your career map. Seeing the

similarities and differences between Career Areas can help you think

about where to start exploring, but the Map does even more. As part

of Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9, you were asked to complete an interest

inventory. If you completed it, your results are shown on the Career

Map. The shaded parts of the Map show Career Areas that align with

your preferred work tasks.

• Career areas: Find the Career Areas in the shaded parts of the Map.

Which basic work tasks do they involve? Select some Career Areas

that look good to you now. Information (such as work tasks, salary,

growth, and entry).

• Region 99: What does it mean if your interest inventory results are in

Region 99? Your pattern of interest scores does not suggest a clear

direction at this time. Think about your preferences for the four basic

work tasks (people, data, things, and ideas). This can help you select

Career Areas to explore.

On Target for Your Career Area?

One way to see if you will be ready for college is to compare yourself to

successful college students. The Prole for Success can help you do this.

The Prole for Success shows a range of ACT Composite scores typical

of successful college sophomores—those having a B grade average or

higher.

When you completed Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 you were asked to choose

one of 26 Career Areas containing occupations you like best. We used

your answer to make the Prole for Success relevant to you. The Prole

for Success score range on your report is based on successful college

sophomores in majors related to the Career Area you chose. (No Prole

for Success score range is reported if you did not choose a Career Area.)

By comparing your predicted ACT Composite score range to the Prole

for Success score range, you can see how you are measuring up. If your

score range overlaps or exceeds the Prole for Success, you are on track.

If your score range falls short of the Prole for Success, it’s a good time

to look more closely at the occupations in your preferred Career Area

and learn more about the type of work and preparation needed. This

can help you build a plan for improving your readiness to undertake

that preparation.

Your Interest-Career Fit

As noted previously, when you completed Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9 you

were asked to complete an interest inventory and choose one of 26

Career Areas containing occupations you like best. Your Interest-Career

Fit shows the level of agreement between your interests right now and

the Career Area you chose.

Do you think your interests t this Career Area? Your interests can

change as you have more experiences and learn more about what you

like and dislike. It is good to know, though, that people are usually more

satised and successful when they are interested in the kinds of work

they do. Exploring occupations in Career Areas that t you well is an

important part of planning for your future.

Exploring Careers

When you think about how important work will be in your life, it makes

sense to start planning early. Counselors, teachers, and parents can

make suggestions, but it’s up to you to put it all together. Here are

some good ideas to get you moving in the right direction.

• Search: Research information about occupations that sound good to

you. We suggest you start at http://www.act.org/collegeplanning.

• Gather: Pull together rsthand information about careers you are

considering, if possible. Talk with people who work in careers on your

list. Ask them what a typical day is like, how they prepared for their

career, and what they like and dislike about their job.

• Find out: Learn more about how to prepare for your future. Learn

about the entry requirements for an occupation you are thinking

about. Are they in line with your plans for education after high

school? Will you need to adjust your educational plans to prepare for

this career? Talk to your counselor or teacher if you have questions.

Building Your Skills

The back of your Student Report describes the skills and knowledge

you have probably already developed. You’ll also see some ideas for

building your skills and knowledge even further in the different subject

areas. The descriptions and suggestions are based on your own scores

and are intended to help you strengthen your skills and understanding

in important ways in each subject area.

Checking item responses: You will denitely want to discuss these

ideas with your counselors, teachers, and parents so that you can work

together to get the most from your courses and reach the goal of being

“college ready.” You can also review the answers you gave to each of

the questions on Pre A C T or Pre A C T 8/9. Refer back to your test booklet

to check on those questions you answered incorrectly and which

response was correct. If you are reviewing a Pre A C T 8/9 score report, a

small number of questions were included on the test for developmental

purposes. These questions did not count toward your score and are

noted as N/A in the tables in the Item Response Analysis section of your

report.

Using test prep: ACT offers a free ofcial ACT practice test. Each

subject can be taken individually with an overall score and links to free

resources provided. Examinees can nd the free practice test and other

resources at act.org/testprep.

Pre A C T Item Response Analysis

Pre A C T 8/9 Item Response Analysis

Code of Fair Testing Practices

ACT endorses the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education and the

Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement,

which guide the conduct of those involved in educational testing. ACT

is committed to ensuring that each of its testing programs upholds the

guidelines in each code. You may locate copies of these codes through

the following organizations:

• Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education: American Psychological

Association (www.apa.org)

• Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement:

National Council on Measurement in Education (

http://www.ncme.

org/)