What is the main difference between ACT score cancellation and Score Choice?

Score Choice keeps your test score private within your personal MyACT account, allowing you to choose exactly which test dates are reported to universities. Score cancellation permanently deletes the entire testing record before it is fully processed, meaning the score will never exist, cannot be viewed, and can never be recovered or sent.

What is the deadline for canceling or deleting an ACT score report?

To stop the automatic reporting of free scores to your designated college choices, a request must be submitted to the ACT by noon Central Time on the Thursday immediately following your Saturday test date. However, for standard national testing administrations, the ACT also permits you to submit a written request to permanently delete a test date record from your file entirely after seeing your scores.

Why do test prep experts generally recommend against canceling an ACT score based on gut feelings?

Students are notoriously poor judges of their own performance immediately following an exam. Difficult sections or intense pacing often create a false impression of failure, yet the actual scaled score frequently turns out better than expected. Keeping the score allows you to see the diagnostic data; if the result is low, you can simply use Score Choice to avoid sending it to colleges.

Under what specific circumstances is it a good idea to cancel an ACT score?

Score cancellation is warranted if your child experienced a verifiable medical emergency or severe illness during the exam that explicitly compromised their capabilities, or if a major testing center irregularity occurred. It is also worth considering if they are applying exclusively to universities that require all scores submitted and they suffered an explicitly anomalous, uncharacteristic test day.

When to Cancel an ACT® Score Before It's Reported

Read time: 4 min · Last updated: June 21, 2026

Test day did not go the way your son or daughter hoped. Maybe they were sick. Maybe something happened in the testing room (proctors mess up tests far more than the ACT or SAT will ever admit, but usually the "messing up" is benign, inconsequential). Maybe your son or daughter just walked out feeling like it was a disaster. Now the question is whether to cancel the score before it is ever processed.

This is a decision that needs to be made quickly and with the right information, because the window to cancel is narrow, the choice is irreversible, and most students who want to cancel probably shouldn't.

Here is what to know.

How Score Cancellation Actually Works

The ACT® gives students the option to cancel their score on test day, before they leave the testing center. A student who wants to cancel must notify the test supervisor before

This is a hard deadline. There is no calling the ACT® the next day to cancel. There is no online form to submit after the fact.

A canceled score is gone entirely. It is never processed, never appears in the student's account, and can never be sent to colleges, or retrieved, for any reason, ever. This is categorically different from simply choosing not to send a score to colleges, which is always available through Score Choice.

Voluntary Cancellation of Scores by You. Unless you test under a State, District, or On-Campus testing program, ACT will cancel your scores upon your request. If ACT has already sent the scores to official score recipients, ACT will notify those official score recipients that the scores have been canceled. ACT will not be required to reinstate voluntarily canceled scores, even if you later change your mind.

Sources

https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Terms-and-Conditions.pdf

Cancellation vs. Score Choice: An Important Distinction

Most students who think they want to cancel a score do not actually need to cancel it. They need to understand Score Choice.

Score Choice means the student controls which test dates get reported to colleges. A score that exists in the student's account but has never been sent to anyone is completely private. Colleges do not see it, it does not affect applications, and the student can simply never send it. It just sits there.

Cancellation is only necessary if a student does not want the score to exist at all, not even in their own account, not even as private data. For the vast majority of situations, Score Choice provides all the protection a student needs without the permanence of cancellation.

The only scenario where cancellation offers something Score Choice does not is if a student applies to colleges that require all scores to be submitted. At those schools, a score the student chose not to send would be a policy violation if they knew about it. A canceled score, by contrast, never existed and cannot be required.

The Core Problem With Canceling

The decision to cancel has to be made before the student knows the score. That is the fundamental difficulty.

Students are notoriously poor judges of their own performance immediately after a test. The questions that felt hardest are often not the ones they got wrong. Sections that felt slow often came out better than expected. The ACT® is a test where gut feelings about performance are frequently inaccurate, both in the direction of overconfidence and, more commonly after a rough day, in the direction of underestimating.

A student who cancels based on how they feel walking out of the room may be canceling a score that was entirely acceptable, and losing both the test fee and a usable data point for future studying. A student who does not cancel and receives a lower-than-expected score can still choose never to send it to anyone.

The asymmetry here strongly favors not canceling in most situations. The downside of keeping a bad score is minimal. It sits in the account and goes nowhere unless the student sends it. The downside of canceling a score that was actually fine is real: a wasted test date and no data to learn from.

When Cancellation Is Actually Worth Considering

Given all of the above, there are circumstances where canceling makes sense.

A genuine medical emergency or serious illness during the test. A student who was significantly ill, not nervous but genuinely sick, during the test has grounds to cancel. In this case, the score is unlikely to reflect the student's actual ability and no useful data will come from it.

A major testing irregularity that the student believes affected their performance and that is unlikely to be flagged by the ACT® itself. If something went wrong in the testing room (a proctor error, a significant disruption, a timing mistake) the student should first report the issue to the supervisor and ask for it to be documented. The ACT® investigates reported irregularities and may void the score on their end. If the student has reason to believe the irregularity will not be addressed and genuinely impaired their performance, cancellation is an option.

The student is applying exclusively to schools that require all scores and had a test that was dramatically out of character. If every school on the list requires full score submission and the student had a genuinely anomalous test (sick, emergency, something concrete) cancellation removes the score from the record entirely. This is the one scenario where Score Choice does not provide the same protection.

Outside of circumstances like these, cancellation is rarely the right call.

What to Do Instead of Canceling

For most students leaving a test feeling disappointed, the better path is straightforward. Do not cancel. Let the score be processed. Wait for the results, which arrive approximately two weeks after the test date. Then make decisions about whether and where to send the score based on actual numbers, not feelings in a parking lot.

If the score comes back lower than hoped, Score Choice means it never has to go anywhere. If it comes back better than expected, which happens more often than students predict, the student has a usable score and a useful data point. If it comes back genuinely low and the student wants to retest, the score report tells them exactly which sections and categories to focus on in preparation.

A bad test day is frustrating. But it is rarely a reason to cancel. It is usually a reason to regroup, study the right things, and come back better prepared.

The Practical Checklist Before Deciding

If your son or daughter is standing in or near the testing center and considering cancellation, run through these questions:

Was there a concrete, verifiable reason the test was significantly compromised, such as illness, emergency, or a documented testing irregularity? If yes, cancellation may be warranted. If the answer is "I just felt bad about it," do not cancel.
Do all the schools on the college list require full score submission? If yes, a bad score cannot be hidden through Score Choice and cancellation is the only way to remove it from the record. If even one school does not require all scores, Score Choice provides meaningful protection.
Has the student already taken the ACT® before and have scores on file? If yes, a canceled score is less costly because they are not starting from zero. If this was the first attempt and they have no scores at all, canceling eliminates the only data available for targeting future study.
Is the student confident enough in their negative assessment to permanently give up any chance of seeing what the score actually was? This is the question most students cannot honestly answer yes to, because they do not actually know.

The Bottom Line

Score cancellation is permanent and made without knowing the score. Score Choice is flexible and made with full information. For almost every student in almost every situation, Score Choice is the right tool. Cancellation is a last resort for genuinely exceptional circumstances, not a reaction to a hard test day.

When in doubt, walk out without canceling, wait for the score, and make a real decision based on real numbers.