In July 2024, the ACT announced it would be implementing changes to the test. The ACT made revisions to online testing this April and will make changes to paper testing in September. These modifications include a shorter test in both length and time, an optional science section and fewer answer choices in the math section.
CEO of ACT Janet Godwin said in a blog post from the ACT website that the organization made the changes to continue the ACT’s legacy of innovation and respond to feedback from students and educators.
“With this flexibility, students can focus on their strengths and showcase their abilities in the best possible way,” Godwin wrote in the post. “This change is designed to make the testing experience more manageable for students, enabling them to perform at their best without the fatigue that often accompanies longer exams.”
The ACT is a standardized assessment used in college admissions. It covers English, reading, math and science topics from high school curriculums. Previously, students answered 215 multiple-choice questions in 175 minutes, with an optional writing section afterwards. Students received a final composite score, the average of scores in all required sections.
With the new changes, the science section is now optional and will be reported separately from the composite score for students who choose to take it. In addition, the test will have 44 fewer questions and be shortened to 125 minutes, giving students more time per question. Math questions will have four answer choices instead of the previous five, and reading and English passages have been shortened. Despite the revisions, the ACT scale remains from 1-36, and the scores that students received from previous tests will stay the same.
Junior Leo Brown took the ACT multiple times and feels that the length and timing changes of the ACT would affect the score distribution.
“I learned how to just skim readings quicker and know what I’m supposed to capture and understand in case I need it for a further question,” Brown said. “I think it’s gonna hurt the skills (I gained), because it’s gonna be easier to get a (higher) score.”
Counselor Justin Beasley-Turner is Conestoga’s assistant ACT administrator and has served as an ACT proctor in the past. According to Beasley-Turner, Conestoga hosts the ACT less often than the SAT and fewer students choose to take the ACT.
“It (the changes) may impact the popularity (of the ACT) due to it being available digitally and making such sweeping changes,” Beasley-Turner wrote in an email. “The SAT going completely digital and shortening its length made it a much more palatable exam for students to take. It may have the same effect for the ACT.”
Sophia Cui can be reached at [email protected].
