The ACT recently announced major changes to the ACT, starting in 2025. Notably, the ACT Science section will become optional, the test will become shorter, and students will receive more time per question.
Test changes are nothing new: the SAT was overhauled in 2024. As always, we’ll keep you apprised of the major ACT changes, along with our recommendations for how students in each class should approach them.
Online vs. Paper ACT: What’s the Difference, and Why Does it Matter?
Before we dive in, it’s important to know that the ACT currently offers two tests: a paper ACT and an online ACT. Many people are unaware that the ACT offers an online test. That’s for two reasons:
The online ACT is offered at very few places, especially in the Philadelphia area. Unlike the digital SAT, for which students bring their own laptops/tablets to test on, the online ACT requires a test center to provide computers to every student.
The online ACT format is poorly designed. Unlike the digital SAT, which is uniquely designed for online testing, with a clean interface and an adaptive nature, the online ACT is essentially just a pdf on a screen. Students looking to maximize their scores will want the paper ACT, where they can annotate, eliminate, easily maneuver between passages and questions, etc.
The end result? Any student trying to get the highest possible score on the ACT should avoid the online ACT…which shouldn’t be too difficult, given that it’s not really offered anywhere in our area. Thus, while we’ll lay out the changes coming to both the online and paper ACT, our recommendations will focus on the paper ACT.
ACT Change Timeline
Online ACT: The changes laid out below will be coming to the online ACT starting in April 2025.
Paper ACT: The changes laid out below will be coming to the paper ACT starting in September 2025.
What are the ACT Changes
1) The Science section will become optional
The ACT currently has four sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. The Science section–which would more accurately be called ‘Data Science,’ since it mostly tests data analysis and requires almost no prior science knowledge–will become optional. Will colleges continue to require the ACT Science section after it is made optional? That’s hard to predict. We’ll simply have to wait and see.
2) A shorter ACT, with fewer questions
3) More time per question.
The ACT, a notoriously fast test, will ease its very strict time limits and give students more time per question.
4) Difficulty level
ACT hasn’t admitted this yet, but if they’re going to give students more time per question, they must increase the difficulty level of the questions.
5) Other content changes
There are a variety of other small content changes within each section. We’ll elaborate further once more details and official practice material are released.
Recommendation for Class of 2026: Proceed As Normal
Changes to the paper ACT will not occur until September 2025, which is fall of senior year. Most Class of 2026 students will be finalizing and submitting applications at this point. Ideally, they have already wrapped up testing and received scores they’re happy with.
Of course, changes to the online ACT will occur earlier (April 2025), but students should steer clear of the online ACT. See our section above on Online vs. Paper ACT for more information.
Thus, our recommendation for the Class of 2026: proceed as you normally would, trying out an SAT and ACT, identifying which gives you higher score potential, and preparing accordingly. You will not be affected by the 2025 ACT changes.
Recommendation for Class of 2027: Wait and See
Short Answer: Wait and See. Students in the Class of 2027 have time. At the time of this writing (summer 2024), those students have just finished 9th grade. They shouldn’t be thinking much about test prep planning for nearly another year.
Here’s our long answer, heavy on speculation:
When we help students identify whether the SAT or ACT gives them higher score potential, the most important factor is speed. The ACT is an extremely fast but more straightforward test, cramming a ton of questions into short time limits. Given everything we’ve heard, it seems that the ACT will become more like the SAT: more time per question, fewer questions, more challenging questions (ACT hasn’t admitted this directly but it seems inevitable). Even the changes around the margins seem designed to make the ACT more like the SAT.
So with two similar tests, how should students approach the SAT vs. ACT decision? We’ll learn a lot more as ACT releases more specifications and practice material for the new test, but we suspect the SAT vs. ACT decision will come down to two factors:
Do you prefer testing on paper or online?
Do you prefer a test in which 50 percent of your score comes from math (SAT) or one in which 25-33 percent of your score comes from math (ACT, depending on how colleges approach the optional ACT Science)?
But in the grand scheme of things, not much will change. All U.S. colleges will likely still continue to accept the SAT and ACT, with no preference between the two. All students should approach the process by trying out both tests to see which test gives them the higher potential score.
We’ll keep this article updated as more information is released. Feel free to contact us to discuss how the ACT changes might impact your student.