ACT, Individual Score Review
ACT Individual Score Review: Your Scores Are Being Questioned
ACT does not review scores at random. Something specific triggered it, and the letter you received offers three options. One of them is to submit documentation supporting your scores, and that submission is effectively your entire case, because the only step available after it is arbitration.
There is no internal appeal here
On other exams a first response is followed by an internal appeal. Not here. If the Test Security Review Panel recommends cancellation, ACT's procedures point to Section 14 of its Terms and Conditions, which is the arbitration provision. Your documentation to the panel is the last stage where anyone weighs the evidence itself, so it has to be complete the first time.
The deadlines, before anything else
Every process on this page can be lost on a date rather than on the evidence. Put these in a calendar before you start drafting anything.
Respond to the review letter
The date in your letter
ACT sets the date. Not responding in a timely manner, or not participating, lets ACT cancel on substantial evidence and close the review.
Extensions
Ask in writing, before the date
Request it before the deadline passes rather than after, and put the reason in writing.
Private retest scheduling
Allow several weeks
Arranged by ACT at a location acceptable to ACT, which matters if you have an application deadline.
Testing rules are revised regularly, and the version in force on your test date is the one that governs your case. The notice you received controls. Read it against the rules as they stood when you tested.
What triggers a review on the ACT
- •Unusual similarities between your answers and another examinee's
- •Scores substantially different from your scores on another test date
- •A verification request from a counselor or admissions officer whose record of your performance looks inconsistent with the score
- •Irregular scoring patterns, yours or those of examinees at your test center
- •Indicators of identity falsification or impersonation
- •Indicators of possible advance access to questions or answers
How the process actually runs
Taken from ACT’s own published rules. Stages shown in grey are past the point where we assist, and are included so you can see the whole route rather than only our part of it.
A preliminary review you never hear about
ACT first reviews what it has on file. If there is insufficient reason to doubt the score, the review closes and you are never told it happened. If there is reason to believe scores may be invalid, ACT may run additional statistical analyses or refer your test materials to a forensic document examiner, and then opens a formal review by letter.
The letter, and three options
ACT sends a letter explaining some of the reasons for its concerns and offering three options: submit documentation in support of your scores, take a free private retest to resolve the review, or voluntarily cancel the scores. ACT reports scores while a review is pending, treats the questioned scores as valid throughout, and does not tell score recipients that a review is underway.
Choose, and understand what each choice costs
Voluntary cancellation ends the review, and ACT notifies score recipients of the cancellation without generally giving a reason. The private retest is administered under secure conditions at a location acceptable to ACT, with additional identification procedures; a confirming score closes the review and both scores stay in ACT's records, while a non-confirming score means the questioned scores are cancelled. Documentation puts the matter to the Test Security Review Panel.
The Test Security Review Panel weighs the whole record
If you submit documentation, you may send a school transcript, a statement in your own words supporting the validity of your questioned scores, and other supporting material. The panel considers your documentation, the results of ACT's review, and other relevant information, and recommends on the totality of the evidence whether there is substantial evidence that the scores are invalid. ACT notifies you of the recommendation.
Challenging a recommendation means arbitrationWe stop before this
If the panel recommends cancellation, you may still take voluntary cancellation or a private retest, or challenge the recommendation. That challenge is arbitration under Section 14 of the Terms and Conditions, generally before the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, conducted on written submissions unless the arbitrator decides a hearing is necessary. Proof of misconduct is not required to cancel scores, and you pay a portion of the filing fee.
What we do, and where we stop
We assist with the review itself: reading the letter, weighing the three options, and building the documentation package for the Test Security Review Panel. We do not handle arbitration, which is what challenging a cancellation recommendation means on this exam. ACT itself encourages examinees whose scores are reviewed to seek advice from parents, teachers, counselors, and other trusted people; an education advisor is that kind of help, at the stage where it still counts.
AdvocatED is an education advising practice, not a law firm. We do not provide legal representation or legal advice. When you need an attorney instead.
How AdvocatED Helps With a ACT Score Review
The documentation option is the one stage where someone weighs your evidence on its merits, and most students get one attempt at it with no idea what a panel finds persuasive.
Where guidance pays off most:Because there is no internal appeal, the documentation package is not a first draft. Treat it as the only submission anyone will read on the merits.
- Read the letter for what ACT is actually concerned about, which is narrower than it first appears
- Weigh documentation against retest against cancellation on your record and your application calendar, not on fear
- Request an extension in writing before the date passes, where you need the time
- Build the transcript and preparation record so a score gain reads as the expected result of work that is documented
- Draft your statement in your own words, which is what ACT asks for, structured so a panel can follow it
- Prepare you for a private retest where that is the better route, including what the secure administration involves
Mistakes that cost people the case
- ×Missing the response date. Non-response lets ACT cancel on substantial evidence and close the review.
- ×Sending a short note of denial instead of a documented package. The panel weighs the totality of the evidence, and a denial is not evidence.
- ×Assuming a further appeal exists. The step after the panel is arbitration, with its own fees.
- ×Taking the retest to look cooperative, without weighing what a non-confirming score does.
- ×Cancelling voluntarily to end the stress. ACT notifies score recipients of the cancellation.
Questions we get about ACT score reviews
What is an ACT Individual Score Review?
It is ACT's process for examining whether a score is valid, opened when something specific raises a question: unusual answer similarities, a score substantially different from another test date, a verification request from a counselor or admissions officer, irregular scoring patterns, or indicators of impersonation or advance access to test content. ACT states that it does not conduct random reviews of test scores.
Can I appeal an ACT score cancellation?
Not through an internal appeal. ACT's published procedures give you three options in response to the review letter, and if the Test Security Review Panel recommends cancellation you may take voluntary cancellation, take a private retest, or challenge the recommendation. Challenging it means arbitration under Section 14 of the Terms and Conditions. That is why the documentation you send to the panel is the decisive submission.
Will colleges find out my ACT scores are under review?
ACT states that it generally reports scores pending completion of the review, treats the questioned scores as valid throughout, and does not inform score recipients that scores are being reviewed. If scores are ultimately cancelled, ACT does notify official score recipients, though it generally does not give the reason, and its standard cancellation letter explains that scores are cancelled for a variety of reasons including illness, mistiming, disturbances, and examinee election.
Does a private retest have to match my original score exactly?
No. ACT's documents describe the test as resolving the review when the retest produces a confirming score, without publishing the margin in the procedures document. Secondary sources describe a tolerance band, but we would not rely on a specific number that ACT has not published: ask ACT what standard applies to your retest, in writing, and go by the answer you get.
Does a cancellation affect my Superscore?
Yes. ACT states that where a score is cancelled as a result of an Individual Score Review and the examinee has chosen to send those scores as part of Superscore, the Superscore is updated to reflect the cancellation.
Where this comes from
Every stage, deadline and standard on this page was read against ACT’s own published rules in October 2026. We link them so you can check us, and so you can compare them against the version in force on your test date.
- ACT, Procedures: Conducting Individual Score Reviews
The 2024–2025 edition, which was the most recent published version we could locate.
- ACT Terms and Conditions: Testing Rules and Policies
Section 14 is the arbitration provision.
Other exams we handle
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