Is 19 a Good ACT Score? (2026)

A 19 is a roughly average ACT score: 58% of recent test takers scored 19 or lower, and the national average composite is 19.4. It puts you in range at many regional public universities and clears at least one state scholarship bar, but it sits below the typical admitted student at most flagships.

So is 19 a good ACT score? It's a solid, middle-of-the-pack result. On ACT's current national ranks a 19 lands at the 58th percentile, a hair under the 19.4 average for the class of 2025, and it lines up with about a 1010 on the SAT. Whether it's "good" depends on where you're applying: it's a comfortable fit at plenty of accessible four-year schools and a stretch at most state flagships. The good news is that the next two points are some of the most valuable on the whole scale.

What Percentile Is a 19 ACT Score?

ACT's 2026-2027 National Ranks place a 19 composite at the 58th percentile. That means 58% of recent high school graduates who took the ACT scored 19 or lower. These are the ranks printed as "US Rank" on score reports for tests taken from September 2026 through August 2027, and they're based on ACT-tested graduates of 2024, 2025, and 2026. The SAT column comes from the official ACT/College Board concordance.

Notice how steep this part of the scale is. Going from 19 to 21 moves you ten percentile points, from the 58th to the 68th. From 32 up, two points buy you two percentile points at most.

A small wrinkle: a 19 is slightly below the 19.4 national average, yet it beats more than half of test takers. That's because the average and the middle aren't the same thing. The middle of the distribution falls around an 18 (52nd percentile), while a long tail of high scores pulls the average up. For the full table, see our ACT percentiles chart and our breakdown of the average ACT score.

What a 19 Means on the Enhanced ACT

Since the ACT's 2025 update, your composite is the average of just three sections: English, Math, and Reading, rounded to the nearest whole number. Science is optional. If you take it, you get a separate Science score and a STEM score, but neither changes your composite (ACT, Understanding Your Scores).

So a 19 could be an even 19-19-19, or something lopsided like 23 English, 17 Math, 18 Reading. Your section scores matter more than the composite when you plan your next move, because ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks are set section by section:

A benchmark is the score that gives you about a 50% chance of earning a B or better, and roughly a 75-80% chance of a C or better, in that first-year course. Here's a useful bit of arithmetic: meeting the English, Math, and Reading benchmarks at their minimums (18, 22, 22) averages 20.67, which rounds to a 21 composite. So a 19 always leaves at least one of those three benchmarks unmet, most often Math or Reading. You're not alone there. In ACT's class of 2025 national report, only 29% of graduates met the Math benchmark and 39% met Reading.

Colleges Where a 19 ACT Is in Range

A 19 fits best at accessible regional universities, especially in states where most students take the ACT. Every range below comes from the school's own 2025-2026 Common Data Set (section C9), describing first-year students who enrolled in fall 2025:

Two things to keep in mind. First, these ranges only describe students who sent scores. At Missouri Western about 46% of new first-year students submitted an ACT, at Austin Peay and Troy about half did, and at Western Kentucky about 70% did. Second, test policies differ. Missouri Western and Troy list scores as not required but considered if you send them. Western Kentucky says students with an unweighted GPA of 2.50 or higher don't have to submit a score. Austin Peay lists scores as required for some applicants, so check its admissions page for the rule that applies to you.

At most state flagships, a 19 falls below the 25th percentile of admitted submitters. If a flagship is on your list, a strong GPA and a retake into the low 20s will do more for you than the 19 on its own. Our guides to a 20 ACT and a 22 ACT show how the college list widens with each extra point.

Scholarships and a 19 ACT

A 19 won't trigger most automatic merit awards at big universities, but it does matter for some state programs, and the exact cutoffs are worth knowing:

• Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship: an ACT of 19 or higher qualifies a traditional student whose high school GPA is below 3.00. Students with a 3.00 or higher only need a test score on record. At four-year schools the award starts at $2,000 for year one (Arkansas Division of Higher Education).
• Louisiana TOPS Opportunity Award: requires an ACT composite of at least the prior year's state average, never less than 20, plus a 2.50 TOPS core GPA (LOSFA). A 19 is one point short.
• Tennessee HOPE Scholarship: entering freshmen need a 21 ACT (or 1060 SAT) or an overall 3.0 GPA, and ACT superscores aren't accepted for this award (College for TN). With a 19, you'd qualify through the GPA route.

Programs like these change, so confirm the current rules with your state agency before you count on an award.

Should You Retake the ACT With a 19?

For most students, yes. A 19 sits on a steep part of the percentile curve, so small gains move you a long way, and ACT reports that students who take the test more than once raise their superscore by an average of 2.4 points (ACT, 2025 graduating class data). A retake is especially worth it if:

• A school on your list has a 25th percentile of 20 or higher.
• You're one or two points from a scholarship line, like Tennessee HOPE (21) or TOPS Opportunity (20).
• One section is clearly dragging the others down. Raising your weakest section is usually the quickest way to lift the average.

Many colleges superscore, combining your best section scores across test dates. Our ACT superscore guide explains how that works. Just remember that some scholarships, like Tennessee HOPE and Louisiana TOPS, do not accept ACT superscores, so they need a single-test composite.

Upcoming ACT Test Dates for a Retake

If you took the September 19 ACT, ACT lists October 6 as the score release date. The October 17 test's late registration deadline (September 29) has already passed. ACT lets you request standby testing for that date until October 12, but seats are not guaranteed, so the next realistic options are December and February (ACT test dates):

December gives you about ten weeks from now to prepare, which is plenty for a targeted two-to-three point push. Before you register, check each college's score deadline. December scores arrive after the common November 1 and November 15 early application deadlines, so they'll mostly help with regular decision applications and later scholarship deadlines.

How to Turn a 19 Into a 21 or Higher

A jump from 19 to 21 is mostly about fixing repeat mistakes, not learning a mountain of new content:

1. Start from your section scores. Find the section furthest below its benchmark. For a lot of students at 19, that's Math (benchmark 22).
2. Drill the most-tested rules. Punctuation and sentence structure on ACT English, and algebra, percentages, and linear equations on ACT Math, come up again and again, so each rule you master pays off on every test.
3. Practice on the clock. Many students at this level run out of time. There's no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a question blank.
4. Review every miss. Write down why you missed it. After a few practice sets, your three or four recurring error types will be obvious.

For the bigger picture on target scores by college type, see our good ACT score guide, and if your score came in lower than you hoped, our lowest ACT score guide covers where the floor really is.

Frequently Asked Questions About a 19 ACT Score

Is 19 a good ACT score?

A 19 is an average ACT score. It's at the 58th percentile on ACT's 2026-2027 national ranks and just under the 19.4 national average for the class of 2025. It's competitive at many accessible regional universities and below range at most state flagships.

What percentile is a 19 on the ACT?

A 19 composite is the 58th percentile, meaning 58% of recent ACT-tested graduates scored 19 or lower. That rank applies to tests taken from September 2026 through August 2027.

What SAT score is equal to a 19 ACT?

On the official ACT/College Board concordance, a 19 ACT corresponds to a 1010 SAT, within a range of about 990 to 1020. Our ACT to SAT conversion chart covers every score.

Can I get into college with a 19 ACT?

Yes. A 19 is in the middle-50% range at schools like Missouri Western State (16–23), Southeast Missouri State (18–24), Austin Peay (18–24), Troy (18–24), and Western Kentucky (18–25), based on their 2025-2026 Common Data Sets. Your GPA will carry a lot of weight at all of them.

Does the Science section count toward a 19 composite?

No. On the enhanced ACT, the composite is the rounded average of English, Math, and Reading. Science is optional and reported separately with its own STEM score.

Is a 19 ACT good enough for scholarships?

For some. A 19 meets the ACT option for Arkansas's Academic Challenge Scholarship, but it's one point short of Louisiana's TOPS Opportunity minimum of 20 and two short of the 21 that Tennessee HOPE accepts in place of a 3.0 GPA. Most automatic university merit awards start higher.

Want to see which section is costing you the most points? Take a free ACT practice quiz on Larry Learns. The free plan includes 3 quizzes a day across English, Math, Reading, and optional Science, drawn from a bank of 25,000+ practice questions. Create a free account and keep practicing toward a 21.