Big changes announced for the ACT college admissions test. What's different?
The length of the ACT college admissions test will be slashed for some test-takers as soon as next year, the exam company announced this week.
The test will ask fewer questions and last up to an hour less than the typical three-hour length. In a departure from past years, reading passages will be shorter and the science-related section of the exam will be optional.
The changes to one of the country’s preeminent college admissions exams represent another big shift in the standardized testing landscape, which was battered by the pandemic. They come a few months after the SAT, ACT’s main competitor, underwent a separate overhaul. The College Board, which owns the SAT, also shortened its exam to two hours and swapped out the traditional pen-and-paper format for a completely online one.
Read more about the SAT overhaul: Big changes are coming to the SAT, and not everyone is happy. What students should know.
Though the vast majority of universities in the U.S. remain test-optional, the modifications to the ACT indicate that many students who still choose to take a college admissions exam in the future will be doing so in a shorter period of time with more abbreviated material.
“These enhancements are just the beginning,” said Janet Godwin, the CEO of ACT, in a statement this week.
Fewer questions, science section optional
The bulk of the test will stay the same, Godwin said, and students can still opt to take it online or in person (unlike with the SAT, which is mostly digital now).
In order to cut the exam’s length by up to a third, the reading and English sections will have 44 fewer questions. The reading passages will also be shorter, Godwin said. Similar to the test’s writing section, the science portion, which can be daunting for some students, will no longer be required.
“A lot of students find that section intimidating,” said Alyssa Coburn, the chief learning officer for the Illinois test prep company Nurturing Wisdom Tutoring.
For online test-takers, the changes won’t take effect until the spring of 2025. They’ll come even later, in the spring of 2026, for students planning to take the test on specific school district-sponsored dates.
How will colleges react?
Godwin made the announcement just a few months after revealing the testing company would transition to for-profit status amid an acquisition by a private equity firm. Though the decision concerned some observers who think ACT’s mission better aligns with the structure of a nonprofit company, Godwin has defended the move as a necessary step to expand the organization's reach and help more students.
The larger debate over the merits of relying on standardized testing in college admissions reached a fever pitch during the pandemic, which accelerated a trend of schools axing the ACT and SAT as application requirements. Though some selective institutions have reverted back to asking for them, more than 80% of four-year colleges will leave it up to students this fall to make that choice, according to The National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a group critical of the testing industry.
Harry Feder, the organization’s executive director, said the decision this week raises new questions about the value of ACT’s test scores.
“The ACT didn’t want to be left in the dust as the fusty, old, three-hour, paper-pencil test,” he said. “While these shorter tests are more user-friendly, there is a serious question as to whether college admissions offices should recognize this test.”
Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, said he still believes the tests are reliable indicators of student success. ACT’s new modifications, in his view, are likely an effort to preserve market share after the College Board's recent overhaul of the SAT.
“The SAT and the ACT have forever been locked in this competition,” he said. “That continues.”
Zachary Schermele covers education and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ACT changes: test duration, number of questions slashed
