Article last updated Nov. 2025
In summer 2025, the ACT went through a major overhaul. The test was redesigned, with adjustments to the scoring system, section length, and content.
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 barely offered in our area. Thus, our recommendations will focus on the paper ACT.
ACT Change Timeline
Paper ACT: The changes laid out below were made to the paper ACT starting with the September 2025 ACT.
What are the ACT Changes
1) The Science section has 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 little prior science knowledge–will become optional. Will colleges continue to require or recommend the ACT Science section after it is made optional? That’s hard to predict. We’ll simply have to wait and see. For the moment, you can use these resources, published by our National Test Prep Association colleagues (Compass Prep and Edison Prep) to track what colleges are saying about the ACT Science.
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 and content changes
Update: Nov. 2025. Here’s what we’ve seen so far about difficulty level changes on each section.
English: More difficult. The English section on the old ACT often the easiest section for students to improve on, simply by mastering grammar skills. English on the new ACT has become significantly more challenging, mostly because the section now tests a lower proportion of grammar questions and a higher proportion of rhetorical skills questions. Also, in trimming down the number of grammar questions, ACT seems to have mostly removed the easier grammar questions, leaving the harder grammar questions intact.
Math: More difficult. The Math section has become more challenging. In going from 60 questions down to 45, it seems that the ACT has mostly removed the easier math questions, leaving the harder math questions intact (just like the grammar question on the English section!). The new ACT includes a variety of somewhat obscure and challenging math concepts. However, advanced math on the ACT isn’t new, but potentially just an amplification: the ACT Math has always tested a wide variety of concepts and gone into pre-calc topics for the hardest questions (unlike the SAT, which pretty much stops at Algebra 2). Also, the new Math section has somewhat compensated for its difficulty with a relatively generous scale: in one example, students could miss 7 questions and still score a 33.
Reading: More manageable to finish within the time limits. The Reading section added 5 minutes and removed 4 questions. The difficulty level of the passages and questions appears to have remained unchanged. The old ACT Reading section was an absolute race—most students could not finish Reading within in the time limits. Many students only got through 1/2 or 2/3 of the old ACT Reading section, even when working at their fastest. The new ACT Reading is still a fast section, but it has become significantly more manageable than it was.
Science: Essentially unchanged, with a little more time per question. The Science section added 5 minutes and kept the number and the difficulty level of questions the same, thus technically making the section easier. While the number of questions has stayed the same (40), the number of passages has increased from 6 to 7. Each new passage requires a little time to digest, so this does chip away at the new five minutes that have been added to the section time. Also, it’s important to know that the vast majority of ACT Science questions require no prior science knowledge—they can be answered exclusively using the tables, graphs, and passages provided. The “outside information” questions that do require science knowledge accounted for only about 10% of all Science questions on the old ACT. ACT claims to be aiming to add more questions that require prior science knowledge, but on the October ACT, we saw an amount of “outside information” questions that were consistent with past ACTs—about 10% of all questions.
If you’re curious how we know all this, this info comes from:
The official ACT released practice material.
Scouring the test prep world for secondhand reports from the September 2025 ACT.
The October 2025 ACT, which Eric and Colin went in and took (yes, in a high school, with the students) in order to learn everything we could about the new ACT. (As a member of the National Test Prep Association, we received a special exemption from the ACT to be allowed to take the test.)
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. 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 notably affected by the 2025 ACT changes.
Update: Oct 2025. Since the Sep. ACT looked relatively promising (see more details both above and below), if you are a senior who won’t be submitting applications until Jan 1 or later and is still looking to improve scores, we highly recommend registering for and taking the Dec 13th ACT. Scores will get back to you before Jan. 1 deadlines. Whether you prepare with us or go it on your own, this gives you one final shot at a higher score. Whether you took the SAT or ACT in the past, this new ACT might just be the test for you.
Recommendation for Class of 2027: Default to the SAT, but go ahead and try the ACT if you’d like.
Update: Nov 2025. This section has been fully updated to reflect what we’ve learned from the Sep. 2025 ACT (the first new test that was offered), released official practice material, and the October 2025 ACT, which we went in and took.
In the past, we STRONGLY recommended that students try both a diagnostic SAT and ACT. With uncertainty remaining surrounding the ACT, we’re now recommending that the following students try a diagnostic ACT, to see if it might be the better test for them:
Students who receive extended time accommodations. Even following the overhaul, the ACT remains a faster, more straightforward test than the dense, complex SAT. Thus, we expect the ACT to be the better test for students who receive extended time.
Students who show indicators of possible higher potential on the ACT than the SAT. There’s a lot of nuance to this that goes beyond the scope of this article, but if you take a diagnostic SAT with us and we suspect that you might have be able to ultimately score higher on the ACT, we’ll recommend that you try a diagnostic SAT.
Students willing to test several (many?) times in order to maximize their score. For a variety of complex statistical reasons that you can read more about here if you’d like, the new ACT is a higher variance test than both the SAT and the old ACT. Thus, on any given day, a student’s score might turn out notably higher or lower than expected. This can be a major disappointment if a student puts all eggs into the basket of one test day, but for ambitious students willing to test 4, 5, or 6 times in order to maximize their scores in each section, the high variance of the ACT will likely play out in their favor (eventually).
Anyone who wants to try an ACT. If you want to explore both tests and truly evaluate which one might be best for you, we’re all for it. Sign up for a diagnostic practice ACT and see how it compares to your SAT.
If this all feels complex and you’d like to keep things simple, no worries! Most students ultimately perform similarly on both the SAT and ACT. Feel free to sign up directly for one of our small group SAT classes or reach out to us to discuss 1-on-1 SAT tutoring.
Future Updates
We’ll keep this article updated as more information is released. The October ACT that Eric and Colin took was highly informative, and we’ll learn even more once that test is released and we’re able to analyze the questions in further depth. As each successive ACT is administered in December, February, April, and beyond, we’ll gain more and more confidence with what the ACT looks like, how to most effectively prepare students for it, and which types of students are likely to perform better on the ACT than on the SAT. As always, our priority will be doing everything we can to help our students improve their scores as much as possible.