What is a 25 ACT score?

A 25 composite is easier to understand as questions than as a number. Scoring about 25 in each of the three scored sections allows roughly 38 wrong answers in total. This page breaks that down per section, shows what the next three points cost, and lists where a 25 actually stands at real colleges.

What a 25 costs in questions

A 25 in each of English, Math and Reading means getting roughly this many right, and no more than this many wrong:

That is 38 questions of margin across the three scored sections. Science is reported separately on the Enhanced ACT and does not count toward the composite.

Your composite is the rounded average of the three section scores, so an uneven split can reach the same composite at a different price. This row describes the even case.

Prep36's own estimates from the published scoring information. ACT equates every form separately, so real cutoffs move by about a question either way.

What it takes to get from 25 to 28

Three more composite points is 11 more questions right in total: English 3, Math 5, Reading 3.

Framed as points it sounds like a different student. Framed as 11 questions it is a number of weeks of specific work, which is what it actually is.

Where a 25 stands at the colleges Prep36 covers

Of the 45 colleges with score data on this site, a 25 sits at or above the top quarter at 0, inside the middle 50% at 24, and below the bottom quarter at 21.

At or above the 75th percentile

None in the set Prep36 covers.

Inside the middle 50%

• Oregon State University 24–31
• University of Alabama 24–31
• University of Illinois Chicago 25–31
• Michigan State University 25–31
• UT Knoxville 25–31
• Texas A&M University-College Station 25–31
• and 18 more

Ranges are the published 25th to 75th percentile composites for admitted students. They describe a class, not a cutoff, and no page can tell you your odds at a school.

How to actually close the gap

Prep36 tags all 1,026 practice questions to the ACT reporting category they test, so your wrong answers group into skills instead of sitting as a pile. Every question carries a worked explanation, and the planner assigns one skill a day between now and your test date.

Free, no account, no card.

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Frequently asked questions