This past week, ACT dropped a bomb, and there are some major changes to the ACT test format and timing. There are two basic things that are changing. One, the science section is becoming optional. And two, they are changing the timing of the test and the items that they’re potentially shortening on what they call the new core test, shortening reading in English passages, and providing more time per question.
But the release was kind of vague. Which questions are going away? How much more time per question are you getting? And how do they do that without being adaptive and still manage to assess your score? Well, we have some insider information because I reached out to ACT and got some official responses to some of my questions that I had in terms of when the changes are happening, paper versus digital, what exactly the changes are, and what the deal is with more time per question. Other details include how students can prepare for the new exam, when we will have materials to that end, and finally, when students can sign up for this test that doesn’t have a science section.
When is this Rolling Out?
First up, when is all of this actually rolling out? In the press release, it said that it’s rolling out for the online ACT in April of 2025, which is really close, and in 2026 for school day testing. But it wasn’t clear. What about the paper test at national test dates? What about international testing centers?
By the way, they use the term online testing, but all it means is digital testing that you can’t do at home. You do it at a test center on a device that’s provided by that testing center, not your own device. So those seats might be limited, but testing will be available in April 2025, but only on national test dates in the United States. In the following September, they will then roll that out digitally to international test sites. So if you’re somewhere else in the world, your international test date, where you can see these changes on your exam, will start in September 2025. Also in September 2025, we’re going to see the paper test on the weekend. So on Saturday or Sunday, you will see this new retimed version of the ACT with an optional science section. For state and district testing, you’ve got to wait a little longer. So if you’re taking state and district tests, you’re still going to be getting the current version of the ACT through the entirety of 2025. And then in the spring of 2026, starting with the February testing window, state and district testing will then pick up the ACT with enhancements, as they said. States and districts are also going to get new flexibility to test across different days once these changes are implemented.
What’s Changing?
So what exactly is changing? How is it getting retimed from section to section? And is it really a shorter test? Well, news flash—and this is actually the most shocking thing that I figured out after I got the email from ACT—the new ACT test isn’t actually any shorter than the current version unless you get rid of the science section. If you take it with the science section, it’s the same length. It’s 2 hours and 55 minutes. It is changing where that time is allocated in some ways that I think is going to be really helpful for students who feel like they’ve run out of time on the ACT. What it’s going to do is level the playing field between kids who get extra time and kids who don’t get extra time, and it’s probably going to become a little bit harder on a question level so that they can continue to challenge students. So, there’s probably going to be more challenging items, but you’re not going to struggle with time as the challenge, which is how the ACT used to be. It was really a race, but it looks like the character is going to change a little bit. So let’s dig into this.
In the English section, we’re looking to have 50 items, which is 25 fewer items than before, with 35 minutes to test compared to 45 minutes previously. What does that actually amount to per question? 42 seconds per question versus the previous 36 seconds per question. Now, I will say that, as a tutor, most of my students did not struggle very much with time in the English section. So it’s nice to have this extra time, and it’s going to help some people on the exam. But overall, it’s probably not a make-it-or-break-it change for a lot of students because most students didn’t feel so rushed in the English section. However, it’s certainly going to do away with those of you who might have some time qualms if you didn’t already have additional time. It’s also going to reduce the amount of advantage that people with additional time have.
The next section is the math section. It’s expected to have 45 items, 15 fewer than before, and students will have 50 minutes to complete the test, which is 10 fewer minutes than they used to have. They will be allotted 66.7 seconds per question, when they previously had 60 seconds per question. But as I always like to say as a tutor, I wasn’t spending 60 seconds on every question. I was spending 30 seconds on easier questions, 45 seconds on middle-level questions, and maybe a minute and 15 seconds or longer on hard questions. So whether this is helpful or not in the math section is going to come down to where they are trimming the items. Are they trimming items on the easy end of the scale on the math exam? If so, I’m not sure that more time will make this easier because, on the ACT, the amount of time it takes per question to complete each question varies really drastically. So, we’re not going to know how the math section plays out in terms of easier or harder until we have some sample exams to look at.
The reading section is expected to have 36 items, four fewer than before, with 40 minutes to test. That’s five additional minutes for four fewer questions, which comes out to be 66.7 seconds per question versus approximately 52.5 seconds previously. This is big. They’re also promising to potentially shorten the reading passages. Reading is one of the sections where students have the most trouble finishing on time on the ACT, so making this a test that breathes a little bit more, has shorter passages so we have less to read, and has a little bit more time per question in addition is probably a really welcome change for a lot of students.
Finally, there is the science section, and this is kind of huge. Science is the same test: 40 items, just like it used to be. The only thing that’s changing in the science section is that they’re adding 15 minutes to the end of it. So, this is really a big, generous gift to you guys; you’re going to have 15 extra minutes to do the science section. So for those of you who really struggle to find the exact detail in the chart to answer the question and take too long to find it, that’s not going to be as much of a hindrance as before.
That being said, I expect there to be a few more difficult science questions to make up for the fact that kids aren’t running out of time. Right now, we have students running out of time all over the place, but especially in the science and reading sections. So as we get rid of that problem, we’re going to have to probably make those sections a little bit harder to keep up with. Now ACT hasn’t said that they’re doing that, but that’s my instinct as a tutor if they want to keep the scores balanced.
So let’s talk about the science section timing. You’re going to have 40 items with 50 minutes to test. That’s 75 seconds per question, versus the previous 52.5 seconds per question. Huge difference. Now I know that the big question many of you are asking is if colleges will take the ACT without the science section. We don’t know yet, and neither do a lot of the colleges; they haven’t even figured out their policies yet. This is a bomb that ACT just dropped on all of us. So, colleges and universities haven’t necessarily determined how they’re going to manage it. We will probably do another video as soon as the dust settles and colleges and universities start to release their policies to that end.
But here’s my tutor prediction: schools are more likely to ask you to take the science section if they already require test scores overall. If a school is test-optional, obviously you can submit absolutely nothing. So what’s wrong with submitting three out of four of the sections? The other question is if you can superscore across tests that have a science section or don’t have a science section. That’s going to be a decision made by individual institutions, not necessarily by ACT. So again, we’re going to have to wait to see how those institutions respond.
When Can We Expect New Practice Materials?
The next question that I asked ACT is when we are going to get some practice materials so that we know what this new version of the test will look like. They said that new test prep materials, including a full-length practice test, will be available in early 2025. But they said a full-length practice test, so that’s only one. However, they said current practice tests and available ACT test prep materials are still great for prepping because there has been no significant change in the types of knowledge and skills measured by the enhanced ACT test.
So what I would say is that if you want to prepare for the ACT, you don’t have to jump the boat because there’s only going to be one practice test in this new format by January. What I would say is to use all the materials that are available now, but understand that when you get the actual test, whatever the harder questions on the ACT are, you might have a few more of those so that they can actually tell how you’re scoring when you have more time per question. So, that’s just something to watch out for. I think they’re going to have to crank the test a bit and make it a little bit harder. They’re not going to admit to that, but I think that might be the case.
The other thing you could do—and I wouldn’t recommend this in the math section because the math really depends on what type of question you’re looking at—in the reading and English sections is to give yourself a little bit more time in the practice sections and work on how you can use that extra time. You might give yourself 42 seconds per question when you’re practicing, versus 36. You might give yourself 66.7 seconds per question in the reading section versus 52.5, or maybe some happy medium in between. You could also practice pacing yourself at the current test’s timing, but then give yourself an extra five minutes at the end to go over what you missed, and that might also simulate the kind of bump or advantage you’ll get on the newer exam if you want to be prepping for it.
When Can You Sign Up?
Finally, when can you sign up for it? Well, not yet. They’re still figuring this out logistically, so you can’t sign up for April onward, but they have a cool thing called ACT Registration Alerts you can sign up for. That’s especially important for those of you in impacted areas like Washington State, California, or anywhere on the West Coast, where ACT sites tend to book up really quickly.
I hope you guys enjoyed this blog and that it helped you get a sense of the upcoming changes to the ACT!
