By: Ben Sexton
For the past year, we’ve heard students repeatedly cite the same reasons for preferring the SAT: it’s shorter, there is more time per question, and there is no Science section. Well, the ACT has listened. In mid-July, the ACT announced an overhaul of their exam. The major takeaways were that exam would be shorter (as little as two hours), allow more time per question, and make Science optional.
The “core” ACT will now consist of English, Math, and Reading, and a student’s composite score will be drawn from these three scores, with the Science score reported separately. These changes go into effect for online testing – which is not relevant for our students in MA – in April 2025, and for National testers in September 2025. Thus, the changes have little effect on this year’s class of juniors, and they become relevant for next year’s class. In September 2025, the online version of the ACT will also become much more widespread. Although, ACT says they plan to retain a paper-and-pencil version of the test for students who prefer that format.
Much has already been written about the changes. This blog from the National Test Prep Association gives an excellent overview. But I want to focus on what I see as a major hurdle for the updated ACT: the exam presents too many options to test-takers and schools administering the test.
By October 2025, test-takers could face up to 12 versions of the ACT. Online core, paper core, paper classic, online core + science, online core + writing, online core + science + writing… Confused yet? Between online and paper, classic and core, and with optional Science and Writing, this is a recipe for decision overload. Plus, while Science is “optional” from the test-taker side, no one knows yet which colleges may decide to retain the Science requirement. So now students, many of whom are applying to more schools than ever, need to research which versions of the ACT will fulfill each school’s requirements. On top of this, students need to determine whether online or paper-and-pencil delivery best suits their skill set. ACT claims that more choices give students more options to showcase their skills, but at a certain point, the choices become overwhelming. We’re at that point.
The SAT, on the other hand, comes in one size only. All test-takers take the same version of the test. No advising is required to determine which version to take, whether this college or that college requires Science, whether online or paper-and-pencil are better for the student, or even if a student should try both. All strategic testing decisions can be limited to studying for the exam.
A related issue is availability of testing. Many families this summer and fall have gone to sign up for the SAT or ACT only to find that no nearby sites were available. For many reasons, schools around the country are hesitant to administer the exams, so the number of test sites has decreased even as testing requirements have in some cases returned. One major reason cited is that school employees feel that administering the exams is complicated, stressful, and does not pay well. This problem will get significantly worse if testing site administrators must deliver 12 versions of the exam! Hopefully, ACT officials will determine how to streamline exam delivery in so many different formats. But College Board at times has had difficulties streamlining delivery in one format, though those difficulties have largely been ironed out as the digital exam has settled in. ACT may find it even more difficult to find schools willing to host their multifaceted exam.
I’ve been a big proponent of ACT this year. I like the Digital SAT a lot, but the ACT has retained an advantage in predictability, coachability, and availability of practice materials. And this is with just one version of the exam (none of my students take the Writing portion anymore). Now, many of these advantages are in question. ACT does claim the new test will evaluate almost all the same skills as the current test, so hopefully the available practice material will remain useful. But even if it does, the number of testing formats is so large as to be a deterrent. We’ll see if ACT can simplify this process for test-takers and test administrators.
For this year, though, it’s business as usual with the four-section paper ACT. All rising juniors should prepare for this year’s tests as they have prepared for the ACT in years past. Big changes draw headlines, but this overhaul remains in the background for this year. Any rising junior preparing for the ACT should be planning to be done by the July 2025 ACT, anyway.
