ACT Aspire Test & Composite Score | ACT Aspire scores & Results

When it comes to getting into college, everyone knows how important it is for a student to receive a good ACT score. Often, the scores weighs heavily in a school’s decision of whether or not to accept a student. It can also lead to opportunities such as scholarships and grants, so students should always try to do their best.

The problem is that students don’t always find themselves adequately prepared when they finally take the ACT in high school. That’s where the ACT Aspire test comes in.

ACT Aspire assesses student readiness in grades 3 through 10 in the areas of English, mathematics, reading science, and writing. These tests help students, teachers, and parents monitor a student’s progress toward a successful ACT score.

What questions does the ACT Aspire Score Card Answer?

The ACT Aspire score helps you to answer three important questions:

Where do I stand right now? You’ll be able to identify areas of strength and weakness in the five tested subject areas.

How can I make goals for the future? After identifying your areas of strength and weakness, you can begin to plan how you’ll address your areas of weakness and how to hone your strengths.

Am I on target for college and a career? The whole point of ACT Aspire is getting you ready to take and be successful on the actual ACT exam, so ACT Aspire is an invaluable tool to help you know how prepared you are to actually take the test and perform well.

How to Read the ACT Aspire Report Card

Students will first receive a three-digit score for each subject in which they were tested. For each subject, these scores will fall into one of four achievement levels, which are Exceeding, Ready, Close, or In Need.


ACT Aspire report card page 1 showing individual progress graph and predicted progress path


Students with scores that fall into the Exceeding or Ready levels are classified as meeting the ACT Readiness Benchmarks, which means they are on target for college readiness when they take the ACT test in the eleventh grade.

Next, Skill Scores go into greater detail about how the student performed in each subject by showing how the student measured in each of the reporting categories for each subject. Students will see the percent and number of points earned out of a total number of points possible in each reporting category.


ACT Aspire report card page 1 showing individual progress graph and predicted progress path



ACT Aspire report card page 1 showing individual progress graph and predicted progress path


The page 2 of the report also gives information about the improvement ideas for the various categories assessed.

What is ACT Aspire Composite Score?

Students in eighth grade or above who take all of the English, mathematics, reading, and science tests will receive an ACT Aspire Composite Score, which is an average of the scores in those subjects if all of those tests were taken at the same grade level.

Students taking the test in ninth or tenth grade will also see predicted subject score ranges on the ACT English, mathematics, reading, science, and writing tests. Students, parents, and teachers can use these predicted scores to determine if the student is on target to take the actual ACT test.

The ACT Aspire report provides valuable information that can help students, parents, and teachers identify ways to help the student achieve his or her goals.

ACT Aspire resources

act aspire Practice Test

Tom Farr

Tom is a writer and high school English teacher in Texas. In addition to a lifelong obsession with all things Star Wars, he loves creating and spending time with his wife and children.