How the ACT Composite works now
On the enhanced ACT, your Composite is the average of three section scores: English, math and reading. ACT started leaving science out of the Composite on the national online test in April 2025, and from September 2025 every Composite and Superscore is calculated that way, according to its Understanding Your Scores page and its enhanced ACT FAQs. That’s also the answer to “ACT composite without science”: it’s simply the Composite now.
Science became optional. If you take it, you still get a science score and a STEM score, and ACT keeps sending them to colleges that have used science scores before. Each section is reported from 1 to 36, the Composite is also 1 to 36, and the optional writing test is scored separately from 2 to 12 without touching the Composite.
The formula and ACT’s rounding rule
STEM = (Math + Science) ÷ 2, rounded
ACT’s rule is that fractions less than one-half round down and fractions of one-half or more round up. Its 2025 practice-test scoring key adds that any average below 1 rounds up, so no one ends up with a 0. Here’s a detail that follows from dividing by three: the average always ends in .00, .33 or .67, so the enhanced Composite can’t land exactly on a half. The STEM score and the old four-section composite can, and a .5 rounds up. ACT calls STEM the average of math and science without spelling out its rounding separately, so we round it the same way as the Composite.
Worked example
The calculator opens with English 28, math 25, reading 31 and science 21. The three Composite sections add up to 84, and 84 ÷ 3 = 28.00, a Composite of 28. STEM is (25 + 21) ÷ 2 = 23. Under the legacy rule, the same four scores would have averaged 105 ÷ 4 = 26.25, a 26. For a student whose science score trails the rest, the new rule is worth two Composite points on the same test.
To reach a 29, the average has to hit 28.5, so the sum needs to be at least 86. That’s two more section points, which is what “points to the next Composite” shows. It also shows how little a single point can do: one more point in English gives 85 ÷ 3 = 28.33, still a 28.
How the ACT Superscore works
ACT’s Superscore FAQs define it as the average of your best scores from each section across attempts. On the enhanced ACT that means your best English, best math and best reading, added up, divided by three and rounded to the nearest whole number. Legacy and enhanced test dates both count, science isn’t part of it, and ACT creates a Superscore for you once you’ve tested more than once since September 2016. ACT’s page also has its own free superscore calculator.
The Superscore tab starts with three dates. September 2025: English 26, math 27, reading 29. December 2025: 30, 26 and 27. April 2026: 28, 29 and 26. The best single date is a 28 (December and April both add up to 83). The Superscore takes English from December, math from April and reading from September: 30 + 29 + 29 = 88, and 88 ÷ 3 = 29.33, a 29. That’s a point higher than any one sitting, without a single new section score.
Whether that 29 is the number a college sees is the college’s decision. You can send either your Superscore or the scores from one test date, so look up each school’s testing policy first.
The enhanced ACT at a glance
| Section | Questions | Minutes | Score | In the Composite? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 50 | 35 | 1–36 | Yes |
| Math | 45 | 50 | 1–36 | Yes, and in STEM |
| Reading | 36 | 40 | 1–36 | Yes |
| Science (optional) | 40 | 40 | 1–36 | No, only in STEM |
| Writing (optional) | 1 essay | — | 2–12 | No |
Question counts and times are standard time, from ACT’s enhanced ACT FAQs. Every section includes embedded field-test questions that don’t count toward your score.
Why this calculator doesn’t convert raw scores
ACT builds many forms of the test, and they aren’t exactly equal in difficulty. Its own scoring key says a raw score of 35 on one form of the math section may be about as hard to earn as a 37 on another. Raw scores are converted to scale scores so that a 26 in math means the same thing on any form, and that takes a separate conversion table for each form.
The unscored field-test questions add another wrinkle. On that 2025 online practice test, only 40 of the 50 English questions, 41 of 45 math, 27 of 36 reading and 34 of 40 science counted, and ACT says those slots move from form to form. A single “raw to scale” chart would be wrong for most forms, so we don’t publish one. If you’re scoring a practice test, use the table printed with that test, then enter the scale scores above.
Limits of this calculator
- Your score report is the official number. This page does the arithmetic ACT describes; it can’t check that the scores you typed are the ones on your report.
- No writing or ELA score. ACT says the ELA score combines English, reading and writing, but writing uses a 2–12 scale and ACT doesn’t publish how the three are combined, so we leave it out.
- College policies vary. Some colleges don’t superscore, and some may still ask for science in certain programs.
Test scores sit next to your grades on an application. To see the other half, use the GPA calculator or the high school GPA calculator, read what counts as a good GPA, and estimate any AP exams with the AP score calculator.
ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT Education Corp., which is not affiliated with GradeDuck and does not endorse it. We read ACT’s pages in October 2026.