U.S. students have six testing dates a year to choose from for taking the ACT. To get applications completed on time, high school seniors often need to take the September or October exams. The winter and spring test dates are a good choice for high school juniors who want to see how they perform. If their scores aren't what they want, they will then have the summer to build their test-taking skills and retake the exam early in senior year.
For the 2009 - 10 academic year, the ACT test dates are:
| Important ACT Dates |
| Test Date | Registration Deadline | Late Registration Deadline |
| 9/12/2009 | 8/7/2009 | 8/21/2009 |
| 10/24/2009 | 9/18/2009 | 10/2/2009 |
| 12/12/2009 | 11/6/2009 | 11/20/2009 |
| 2/6/2010 | 1/5/2010 | 1/15/2010 |
| 4/10/2010 | 3/5/2010 | 3/19/2010 |
| 6/12/2010 | 5/7/2010 | 5/21/2010 |
