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Effective Spring 2025, the ACT will start to make student’s lives a little easier. Shorter sections, optional science, and more. Here’s a helpful infographic to see what changes are in store.
Important ACT Changes You Should Keep in Mind
THE ACT IS CHANGING
What’s changing?
Optional Science:
- The science section will be optional on the new ACT, which means that students will decide whether to take the science section and/or the writing section.
Shorter Test:
- The new ACT will be significantly shorter in terms of both time and number of questions. The core ACT (English, reading, and math) will be just 2 hours long and have 44 fewer questions than the current version.
Shorter Passages:
- The English and reading sections will include shorter passages.
More Time Per Question:
- The new ACT gives students more time to answer each question.
What’s staying the same?
Scoring:
- The new ACT will still be scored on a scale of 1–36. Students will still receive a composite score (the average of the English, reading, and math scores) and section scores.
Paper and Online Testing:
- Students will still have the option to take the test on paper or online.
Optional Writing:
- ACT will continue to offer the optional writing section.
When will we see the new version of the ACT?
Spring 2025 (National Testing):
- ACT will begin to introduce the new version of the test next spring, starting with students taking the online ACT on standard national test dates.
Spring 2026 (School-Day Testing):
- Students taking the ACT during school-day testing will see the new version in the spring of 2026.
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