You may find it helpful to understand ACT, Inc.'s college readiness benchmarks. ACT benchmarks are a group of six scores, one for each section of the main exam plus one each for STEM (the average of a student's mathematics and science scores) and ELA (the average of a student's English, reading, and writing scores). ACT, Inc. claims that test-takers who meet a particular benchmark have a greater than 50% chance of earning a B or higher in an introductory college course in that subject. For example, the idea is that a student who earns a 24 on the science portion of the ACT has a reasonable chance of getting an A or B in their first-year biology class. The benchmarks are as follows: English: 18 Mathematics: 22 Reading: 22 Science: 23 STEM: 26 ELA: 20 It's worth noting that ACT, Inc.'s claims about benchmarks have been challenged. For example, researchers at the University of Chicago found that college admissions test scores didn't accurately predict students' performance in college; their high school GPA was a much more reliable predictor.