The ACT Slims Down

TFW your romantic rival loses weight and now you feel fat.

I mean, put yourself in the ACT's shoes. You've been eyeing that cute American high school junior and senior demographic, and then suddenly the SAT comes back from winter break clocking in at just over 2 hours. What's a standardized test to do? Obviously you stop eating carbs and start the cardio. 

So, perhaps inevitably, the ACT has made an announcement: it's getting shorter, too, and kids will have a little more time (about 10 seconds more, on average) per question in most sections. Here are the details:

 

The other big news? The ACT's Science section is going to be optional. So the shortest version of the test is obviously to skip Science. And even though the ACT is still offered with an optional essay, only a handful of colleges (West Point being one notable example) care about it, so it's kind of a non-factor at this point. A student's composite ACT score (the total score you get from 1 to 36) will now only be an average of the English, Math, and Reading section scores. I think competitive colleges will likely be the ones to require the Science section, so ambitious students would do well to continue to prepare for it.

When is this "new" ACT debuting? The new paper version of the ACT will debut September 2025. (BTW, the ACT says it will continue to offer a paper version indefinitely - unlike its rival, the SAT, which is now only online). 

What are we to make of this change? Well, the content of the test isn't changing, so we don't have to get ready for new material or question types, and the wealth of old ACT test material we have will continue to be very useful. This, by the way, is one advantage ACT preppers have - there are dozens of old ACT tests available and few new SAT tests. Of course, we'll be all over any new practice material that the ACT releases. As always, it's important to use authentic tests for practice when preparing for any standardized test.

What was a notoriously fast-paced test will now be more manageable, time-wise. The Reading section, in particular, will now grant test-takers more than 25% more time per question. Of course, that could mean that the average question difficulty will rise, as more time means more students can score high. The number of perfect ACT scores has gone up steadily over the years, so to maintain a meaningful bell curve of scores, you have to figure the test will slowly get harder.

Another interesting change is that a small percentage of test items will be unscored - i.e., used for research purposes. Students will not know which items these are, which is good for data collection purposes: if students know a question doesn't count, many of them won't try to get it right. 

Colleges, for their part, will probably consider the shorter test on an equal footing with the current test, as they seem to have done with the SAT's now shorter version. 

The Bottom Line

With the ACT moving to a shorter version, both major college entrance exams will now be more palatable for students, and are now on a more equal footing to compete for test-takers.

Questions For Discussion

1. Has a romantic rival ever induced you to reinvent yourself? Explain (pictures encouraged).

2. Is science optional in your life?

3. Is the reinvention of these tests benign, or smart marketing at the expense of validity?