{"id":7595,"date":"2016-08-02t16:31:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-02t23:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/?p=7595"},"modified":"2017-02-27t13:18:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27t21:18:28","slug":"act-standard-deviation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/","title":{"rendered":"act standard deviation"},"content":{"rendered":"

one of the first things a lot of test-takers ask is “what’s a good act score?” there are a couple of ways of answering this; our act score range<\/a> post takes a look at some of them. what we’ll do in this post is examine another way of evaluating scores, through the act standard deviation.<\/p>\n

instead of talking about good and bad act scores, i’ll break down the act bell curve to show you how your score stacks up against those of millions of other test-takers. <\/p>\n

so if you\u2019re ready, let\u2019s crunch the numbers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

a little refresher<\/h2>\n

let’s take a quick overview of bell curves and what they do (and don’t) show to get us started.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"act
image by dmcq<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

this bell curve illustrates iq distribution. the peak of the curve represents an iq of 100. from this, we can see that 100 is the most common iq, with the majority of people (68.2%) having an iq of somewhere between 85 and 115. <\/p>\n

now, take a look at the edges of the graph. iqs lower than 85 or higher than 115 are less common. if you have an iq of 130, for example, only 2.2% of the population has an iq higher than yours. <\/p>\n

finally, the last important thing to note her is that the standard deviation<\/strong> of this bell curve is 15. that’s because each section goes up in 15-point increments.<\/p>\n

is there more to know about bell curves? sure there is. but for the purposes of looking at act standard deviation, we have what we need to move forward!<\/p>\n

act standard deviation<\/h2>\n

now, imagine the same curve with the same percentages. one big difference: the numbers at the bottom have changed. the middle number is 20.8 and the standard deviation is roughly 4.7. <\/p>\n

with those two little changes, we now have a bell curve that shows the distribution of act scores.<\/strong><\/p>\n

let\u2019s put this new graph to work. if you earned a 31 on the act, that would put you in roughly the same spot that a 130 iq did on our previous graph. therefore, we can see that people who earn a 31 do better that 97.8% of their peers. <\/p>\n

what does this mean for me?<\/h2>\n

besides being a fun statistics exercise, act standard deviation is a powerful tool to see how competitive you are in the college application and scholarship field. if you’re planning on attending a less-competitive college, then a 21 (placing you slightly above average) is fine. yet if you\u2019re thinking about harvard, your score should be as far to the right as possible.<\/p>\n

but where would a 31 put you in terms of actual numbers? cranking out the numbers, if you earned a 31 on the act, that would put you in the top 33,320 test takers. so even if you\u2019ve earned a 31, you still have a lot of competition to get into one of america\u2019s top colleges.<\/p>\n

final thoughts<\/h2>\n

a good act score should only be one part of a well-rounded college application package<\/a>. at the end of the day, prep your best, keep your grades as high as possible, and complete the best application that you can. as long as you do your research, and know what your top choice colleges expect, you\u2019ll be just fine—or even several standard deviations above<\/em> just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

one of the first things a lot of test-takers ask is “what’s a good act score?” there are a couple of ways of answering this; our act score range post takes a look at some of them. what we’ll do in this post is examine another way of evaluating scores, through the act standard deviation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[22],"ppma_author":[24915],"class_list":["post-7595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","tag-act-scores"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nact standard deviation - magoosh blog | act<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"the act math test does not cover statistics, but statistics can help you determine how your scores stack up against the millions of other test takers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"act standard deviation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"the act math test does not cover statistics, but statistics can help you determine how your scores stack up against the millions of other test takers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | act\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-02t23:31:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-27t21:18:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/files\/2016\/07\/iq_distribution.svg_-600x361.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"thomas broderick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thomas broderick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"thomas broderick\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/#\/schema\/person\/0a42ebf95f4c3aaf08c7f83b3ca64abe\"},\"headline\":\"act standard deviation\",\"datepublished\":\"2016-08-02t23:31:17+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2017-02-27t21:18:28+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\"},\"wordcount\":559,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"act scores\"],\"articlesection\":[\"act\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/act-standard-deviation\/\",\"name\":\"act standard deviation - 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