By now, many students have heard that the ACT is changing with their slow roll out of the “new ACT” starting in 2025. However, the ACT hasn’t released many details until recently. Read on to learn how each part of the ACT will be changed in this newest iteration of the old familiar test.
English:
The biggest change in the English section is in the wording of the questions. The old ACT often lacked what is called a question stem. In other words, there were no questions, merely a list of options. Students had to read lengthy directions at the beginning of the test to understand that picking any given option would replace the underlined part of the sentence with the option selected. The new ACT will have a question stem for every question instead of just a list of answers. Consequently, the ACT anticipates that students will be better able to understand the task at hand.
In addition, the new English section will have only 50 questions instead of 75 and will only take 35 minutes to complete instead of 45.
Math:
On the current version of the ACT, one of the more interesting parts of the math is that each question has five answer options. On most other multiple choice standardized tests and on the other sections of the ACT there are only four options. The New ACT math will be adjusted to reflect this standard with one of the incorrect answer options or “foils” eliminated so that there are only four answer options from which to choose.
In addition, the math test is being cut from 60 questions to 45 and from 60 minutes to 50, giving students slightly more time to think through each question.
Reading:
While initial reports claimed that ACT might change the length of the reading passages, this has not happened, instead, each of the four passages will have nine questions instead of ten. In addition, 40 minutes will be allotted to finish the 36 questions where the old ACT only allowed for 35 minutes to finish 40 questions.
Science:
The big shake up with the science is that it will be optional! Since most other standardized tests do not test scientific thinking in its own separate section, the ACT has decided that this section will not be required. How colleges react to this is yet to be seen. Some may require it for all students or for no students. Others may require it for certain majors or programs. The science score will not impact the student’s cumulative ACT score under the new format.
In addition, the New ACT has decided to allow for five extra minutes on the science section, granting students more time for the critical thinking it requires.
Takeaways:
The ACT is adapting to reduce the length of the test while still giveing students more time to think about questions and to bring their testing format into line with generally accepted educational practices.
Students can see and practice the new format with the practice tests found here:
https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-changes/online-testing/sample-questions.html