Another college admissions test is getting a revamp. Like the SAT – for which a new format was launched in March 2024 – the ACT is undergoing some adjustments, including a shortened format, optional science section and ability for students to choose between the paper and digital versions.
Those changes will go live with national online testing beginning in spring 2025, while the rollout for school day testing will be in spring 2026.
"Our goal here is to really bring flexibility and choice to the students," says Catherine Hofmann, senior vice president of government and public relations at ACT, a nonprofit that develops the test.
How Do Colleges Use the ACT?
Colleges use ACT and SAT scores "as an independent yardstick to check on the foundational skills versus what is showing up in the GPAs for students, simply because we have a little bit of grade inflation going on out there in the world," says Ann Derryberry, owner and academic director at Everest Tutors & Test Prep in Maryland.
Escalated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, more colleges in recent years have allowed students to choose whether to submit their scores, or in some cases won't accept them at all.
A small group of Ivy Leagues or very selective schools have reinstated their testing requirements, due to their own research indicating that test scores reliably predict academic success in college compared to high school grades alone. But for fall 2025 admissions, more than 80% of four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. will not require ACT or SAT scores to be submitted, according to FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing data.
"The world of college admissions testing is evolving rapidly," Ashley Zahn, director of content and curriculum at C2 Education, a test prep and college admissions counseling company, wrote in an email. "Each year, colleges reevaluate their testing policies, so students can expect more colleges to shift from test optional admissions to test required admissions in the future."
The changes and options available across the college admissions testing landscape have made it more complicated for families to navigate, Derryberry says.
This "was probably not the idea when we wanted to shift toward this test-optional piece, it was to give more power to the students," she says.
ACT Changes
Some upcoming ACT modifications include a shortened test day, a voluntary science section and the option to take the test digitally or on paper. All of the current subjects will remain the same – English, reading, math and optional science and writing sections – albeit abbreviated.
"The ACT redesign is primarily intended to improve the student's testing experience," Zahn says. "A shorter test with an optional science section will appeal to many test-takers. However, we've yet to see colleges' reactions to the redesign. Much will depend on whether colleges see the redesigned test as equally valuable in predicting college success."
Here's more about some of the most important ACT changes:
Shortened Test Day
The length of the test was reduced to about two hours, with science and writing each an additional 40 minutes. Additionally, there will be 44 fewer questions, and the number of answer choices per question in the math section was reduced from five to four.
"The test overall will be shorter, which is good because right now if I have kids that honestly would perform better on an ACT than an SAT, I'm finding it very difficult to win them over because the test is longer, it's on paper," Derryberry says. "Even if I'm like, 'you're going to get a better score,' that desire to not have to take a three-and-a-half-hour test versus a two-and-a-half-hour test is very strong."
Optional Science Section
Like the writing section, the science section will also become optional. Therefore, a student's overall ACT score – known as the composite score – will be an average of the English, math and reading sections. Although the composite score will no longer include the science section, the score scale will remain the same: 1-36.
As the new redesign rolls out, some experts wonder if the science section may not actually be optional for admissions consideration, at least initially.
In the past, colleges have required optional tests – such as the now-defunct SAT subject tests – or optional test sections, like the essay sections on the old SAT and the current ACT, Zahn says.
It's possible, she adds, "that some colleges will decide to require the optional science section, either for all applicants or for applicants to certain majors. For this reason, students who intend to prepare for the ACT should include science as part of their ACT prep – it's better to be prepared for the science section and not need it than to fail to prepare only to discover that a target college requires it."
Choice Between Digital or Paper Format
Compared to other college entrance exams, the ACT is remaining committed to paper while also adding a digital option, Hofmann notes.
"Students can choose to take the ACT on paper or they can choose to take it digitally, whichever they feel is the best format that they prefer," she says. "We've been doing it in school day (testing), but we will be offering it on those Saturday national test days now as well."
National center test-takers will take the new online version of the ACT beginning in April 2025, while the updated paper format will become available five months later.
"Of note, although the redesigned test will be offered in a digital format, the digital test will not be adaptive as the SAT is," Zahn says. "The digital version will be identical to the paper version, simply delivered on a different platform." In an adaptive test, how a student performs on a set of questions affects the difficulty of the following group of questions.
How to Prepare for the Changes
There are many options to help prepare for the test, including self-guided online resources, national test-prep companies and private tutors. ACT and Kaplan, for example, offer free practice exams, videos and testing strategies on their websites. There are also paid study options.
Since the redesigned ACT will include all of the same topics and question types as the current version, students can continue to use existing resources to prepare, Zahn says. Practice tests and preparation materials for the new version of the ACT will be released in early 2025.
"Ideally, students should approach ACT preparation as a marathon rather than a sprint," she says. "The best way to maximize ACT scores is to build core knowledge and skills over time. By internalizing the knowledge and skills needed for ACT success, students become prepared for every type and difficulty of question they may encounter on test day, which means that they are able to strive for the highest possible scores."