If you’re wondering whether or not you’re allowed to retake the ACT, good news! The test makers at ACT, Inc. are very generous with their ACT retake policy.
You are allowed to take the ACT up to 12 times and scores remain valid up to 5 years after the date of the test.
However, there’s also some less-than-good news…
Taking the test as many times as possible rarely leads to the best return on investment for your time and effort.
As is true with most tasks around the college admissions process, it’s not best to simply say yes to every single little opportunity presented to you.
Instead, putting together a plan of action – one that maximizes the effort you put forth on each and every ACT test day – is critical to keeping stress levels low and benefits high.
Don’t Waste Time, Money, Or Energy When Retaking The ACT
We’ve been helping students prepare for the ACT for over 14 years now and if there’s one thing we can say with complete confidence it is this: there is nothing more defeating than retaking a test and seeing little to no progress.
And yet many students think that simply testing again will lead to improved results.
The sad truth is that it usually doesn’t.
Unless you are actively preparing for the ACT, your scores won’t improve much.
Taking the test over and over without tweaking your strategic approach or reviewing academic concepts is a recipe for disappointment.
However, ACT, Inc.’s generous 12 test policy leads a lot of students to do just that. They sacrifice a lot of Saturday mornings and hundreds of dollars in registration fees that a little bit of planning could’ve helped them avoid.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to your family, I’m here to share with you the ideal way to take the ACT so you can get your higher scores in as few test dates as possible.
So instead of focusing on how many times you can take the ACT, let’s ask how many times you should take the ACT.
How Many Times Should You Take The Act?
While the official policy allows you to take the ACT up to 12 times, for the sake of everyone’s sanity my advice is to have students plan to take the exam at least 2 times on back-to-back test dates after some preparation.
To help you, I’ve provided an ideal ACT testing plan below; however, please know that if you’ve already taken a real exam or two, that’s totally fine. You can still take advantage of steps 2, 3, and 4!
So, without further ado, here are the 4 steps of an ideal ACT testing plan…
Step 1: Take a free practice ACT at home before stepping foot in an official ACT test room.
Thinking of winging it? Think again.
Taking a free practice ACT at home will give you a really good sense of how you’ll perform on an official ACT exam – without the added stress of your first score being recorded in the official ACT ledger.
You can find an official free ACT exam here. This free ACT exam includes an answer key and instructions for translating your raw score to your scaled ACT score. (Click here to learn more about how the ACT is scored.)
Treat this at-home exam like it’s a real one. Time it and take it all in one sitting. But breathe easy knowing that, if it doesn’t go well, the score will never be seen by anyone but you.
And, if you’d like to know what to expect, click here to find out what’s on the ACT before you sit down to test.
Step 2: Research your favorite colleges’ average ACT scores for acceptance and scholarships.
ACT scores serve 2 purposes in the college admissions world:
- ACT scores verify your school performance, ensuring that your grades are not inflated or deflated. This is important because, as a standardized exam, it allows college admissions panels to compare students’ performance without having to take into account the variability of grading policies teacher by teacher, high school by high school at a national level.
- ACT scores are, in many cases, a necessary and crucial metric when determining scholarship awards. Despite a lot of double talk in the college admissions arena about the importance of test scores for acceptance to a school, there’s no denying that ACT scores can be the make-or-break metric for receiving funding to attend a college. In other words: you might get in without test scores, but you might not receive scholarship dollars if you don’t have a score in your back pocket.
So do your due diligence and compare the readily available data about the ACT scores needed to get into college (available on the Admissions page of most college websites) and needed to receive scholarship dollars (available on the Admissions page of most college websites). A college list spreadsheet is tremendously helpful in this endeavor.
Then compare those scores against the scores you received on your at-home ACT practice test.
Sound like too much work? Have a ton of questions?
For a comprehensive approach to this process that’s fully supported by a college admissions expert, consider taking advantage of College Comparison Data Dive, a service we offer through our sister company, March Consulting.
Step 3: Come up with a plan for bridging the gap between your starting score and your data-informed target score.
Once you have data in hand, you’ll discover you are faced with one of two realities.
- Your practice test score is at or above your ideal ACT score as determined by the college comparison data.
- Your practice test score is below your ideal ACT score and you have some work to do before taking the ACT again.
While we wish more students took a practice test and found that #1 was where they landed, the truth is that we offer ACT prep courses for a reason.
The reason is that most students aren’t in their ideal score range. So, if you have some ground to make up, no worries! There are tons of resources to support you.
We offer two different online ACT prep courses – ACT Comprehensive to help bridge big gaps and ACT Sprint to help you move the needle fast.
But you can also get started right now by grabbing our Insider’s Guide To The ACT & SAT for free. In it, we’ll share 35 incredible test taking strategies that will help you boost your score…FAST.
Step 4: Register for 2 back-to-back ACT test dates.
Once you’ve decided on your method of prep, plan to end your prep just 1 week prior to the next ACT test date you will be taking.
But – here’s the catch – don’t plan to take just 1 ACT exam and see how it goes. By the time you get your scores back from the first test, it will be too late to register for the next closest exam.
Instead, set yourself up for success by registering for 2 back-to-back ACT test dates (ex: April and June or September and October) so you can maximize your testing efforts as close as possible to your prep experience.
At the end of the day, the goal is to test as few times as possible to get the scores you need to get the things you want – namely, admission to your favorite colleges and scholarship dollars to help you pay for the experience.
That’s our focus here at Higher Scores Test Prep.
Both of our online ACT prep courses are designed to walk you through the steps of this process – helping you come up with your testing plan, improve your ACT scores, and maximize your scholarship awards.
And if you’re in need of college admissions support, our sister company – March Consulting – is here to help you every step of the way. From choosing the perfect ACT test dates for your busy schedule all the way to receiving your acceptance letters to funding your college experience with incredible scholarship awards, we help our private college counseling clients with every step of the journey.
To date, we’ve helped more than 800 families receive over 5,000 acceptance letters and win more than $61,000,000 in scholarship awards.
Click here to schedule your free consultation with March Consulting.
