Big Changes Are Coming to the ACT

The ACT is undergoing its most significant updates in years, but don’t worry. These changes make the test shorter and, in many ways, more straightforward. Unlike the SAT’s bold move to a fully digital format, the ACT’s changes are more measured, focusing on solving long-standing complaints, such as limited time per question and overly complex question designs. These updates aim to modernize the test while maintaining its reputation as a reliable indicator of college readiness.

Consequently, the Enhanced ACT will still look similar to its traditional form. Here’s a quick summary of what’s new:

• More Time Per Question: Students have extra seconds to process and answer.
• Optional Science Section: Take it only if your college requires or recommends it.
• Shorter Test: Fewer questions and a reduced overall duration.
• Streamlined Math Questions: Simpler structures with fewer answer options.
• Concise Reading Passages: Shorter texts in both English and Reading.
• Faster Scores for Online Test-Takers: Results delivered sooner than paper-based exams.

These changes aim to alleviate students’ stress on test day. They also improve the test’s accessibility for a broader range of test-takers.

The ACT released an update on their website that we’ll look deeper into. Now, let’s dive into each update the ACT has released publicly.

When Will These Changes Take Effect?

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The rollout of the enhanced ACT will happen in phases, allowing students and schools time to adjust:

• April 2025: Students testing online will be the first to experience the new format.
• September 2025: Paper-based test takers will transition to the enhanced ACT.
• Spring 2026: Schools and districts offering ACT testing will adopt the new structure.

This deliberate rollout ensures the format is tested and refined as all test-takers adopt it. Knowing when the changes take effect is critical for planning your preparation, whether you’re testing online or on paper.

What’s Different About the New ACT?

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The ACT is taking steps to streamline its format while ensuring the test remains rigorous. One of the biggest updates is a shorter overall test length, which reduces testing fatigue. This is almost certainly in response to the College Board making the Digital SAT much shorter. No student wants to be the guy in high school who says to their friends, “No thanks. I’ll be taking the ACT, you know, that test that’s an hour longer than the SAT.”

Thus, in an attempt to remain competitive in the standardized testing market, the ACT changes. As mentioned, the timing of the test consists of its most noticeable changes thus far.

This change benefits students by reducing the time spent on lengthy sections, allowing them to maintain focus throughout the test. With fewer questions, the test emphasizes quality over quantity, helping students demonstrate their knowledge more effectively.

More Time Per Question on the Enhanced ACT

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One of the most student-friendly updates is the additional time provided for each question. In the current format, many students struggle to finish sections like Reading and Math within the allotted time. The enhanced ACT gives students a better chance to process questions and carefully consider their responses.

The ACT has always favored students with a higher processing speed. Mindprint Learning, a private cognitive assessment firm, describes processing speed as follows:

Processing speed is how efficiently you process and respond to new information. Processing has several sub-categories, including auditory, verbal, and visual. There are also quick-thinking processing tasks and slower processing tasks. [Processing Speed also impacts] Class participation, standardized tests, reading efficiency and homework efficiency.^[1]

While processing speed can trained and cultivated, it’s difficult to do in the short term. Thus, if a test prep student has a slower processing speed, even the keenest ACT tutor may encounter difficulty in reading the test exponentially faster. Therefore, I’m thrilled about the possibility of reducing the time constraints on the Enhanced ACT.

Not to make this about me, but I’m a slower processor. I read and write often, but I’m slower at it. Furthermore, there’s a distinct possibility that I will always be. That’s likely the case because all of one’s processing speed doesn’t spring from skill development. Much of a student’s processing speed springs from their visual aptitudes, which solidify and typically don’t change after 14-15 years of age.

For example, the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation has shown the following:

Research indicates that aptitudes stabilize around the age of fourteen and tend to remain consistent over time, even as interests and skill sets evolve.^[2]

Hence, while students can develop skills via annotating, cross-referencing, passaging mapping, etc, their raw processing power remains the same. Thus, this change is good for slower readers like me (and so many of my students). This extra time helps reduce stress and gives students a fairer opportunity to excel, especially in time-intensive sections like Reading and Science. Students should still practice pacing, but they can now focus more on accuracy rather than rushing through questions.

And while that likely means more difficult content, it’s a move in the right direction.

Will the ACT Still Provide Superscores?

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Superscoring remains a key feature of the ACT, allowing students to combine their best section scores across multiple test dates. The ACT confirms:

Yes!

Granted, a laconic response. However, this is great news for students looking to maximize their Composite scores for competitive college applications. With Science no longer part of the Composite calculation, students should focus on excelling in English, Math, and Reading to maximize their superscore potential.

How Long Will It Take to Complete the ACT?

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The new ACT format allows for a more flexible test-taking experience. The required time depends on whether students opt for the Science and/or Writing sections. The total duration for the core sections (English, Math, Reading) is just over two hours. Here’s how the timing breaks down for each part:

If students include the optional Science section, the total test duration is 2 hours and 45 minutes. The Science section measures students’ ability to interpret and analyze scientific data—skills particularly valuable for STEM-focused college programs.

Adding Science and Writing increases the test time by 40 minutes per section. Students taking all five sections will need approximately 3 hours and 25 minutes to complete the test, including breaks. This format allows students to customize their test day while accommodating their academic goals.

That student agency allows the ACT to become, in some cases,  more marketable than the SAT. When I consult parents and students for college admissions counseling, many ask me the same form of questions:

• How many AP classes should my son take to be a competitive college applicant?
• Which test should my daughter take, the ACT or the SAT?
• Do colleges value extracurricular activities inside or outside of school more?

The underlying theme beneath these questions is another entirely, which asks this:

What can high school students do to put them above their peers?

I’m sure there’s a kinder, less toxic way of asking that question, but there you have it. Students want to stand out, and parents desire that for them, especially in the application process. Furthermore, many students will take on nearly impossible workloads to gain that edge. In my time as a college admissions consultant, I’ve witnessed or advised students to do the following to make their applications more unique:

• Found Nonprofits
• Start Businesses
• Organize Political Rallies
• Create Online Education Resources
• Code Complicated Software Applications

Students aren’t just willing to do exceptional projects like these. Also, they’re willing to invest the sweat and grind needed to develop the skills necessary to do so. By doing so, they hope to gain admittance to the likes of UPenn, Cornell, and other Ivy League Colleges. Or, if not some prestigious university, their parents wouldn’t be offended if they seized some of that coveted merit aid to make their college experience more affordable. Doing so makes for a tired student (see below), but for many, it pays off.

So, what does this have to do with the Enhanced ACT? Imagine a student who wants to apply to the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UPenn. UPenn has an acceptance rate of 6 percent.^[3] And their engineering program is likely even more competitive.^[4]

Thus, applying students who are serious about getting in are kicking and screaming to do everything in their power to enhance their application.

Now, ask yourself this: what sounds more impressive?

1. Scoring well on a 2-hour test with no Science or Writing Sections…
2. Taking a 2.7-hour test with a Science and Writing Section…

It’s no puzzle to determine which choice the hustle logic enshrined by prodigiously industrious high school students demands they pick. It’s not compulsory; it’s a choice. And the ACT allows students to make that choice. Conversely, the SAT does not. Hence, I can see how the ACT’s flexibility might become a more attractive option.

Will There Be a Price Difference Between Tests With and Without Science?

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Yes, pricing varies depending on the test options selected. According to the ACT:^[5]

Here’s the current pricing breakdown through July 2025:

These pricing options allow students to choose the sections most relevant to their goals without incurring unnecessary costs.

What About Students With Accommodations?

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Students requiring accommodations will benefit from the same enhancements as their peers. According to the ACT:

The enhancements will become available based on the timeline above regardless of accommodation status.^[6]

That statement was a breath of fresh air to read. Nearly half the students my team and I work with have some learning differences or are members of the growing body of the US’s Neurodiverse students. I, myself, am burdened and blessed with a bone-crushing weight of ADHD that I’ve taken medication for off and on (currently on) since the second grade (approximately ten thousand years ago).

I hate to utter these words, “BUT BACK IN MY DAY…”  The cure for having ADHD in the South was trying harder or corporal punishment. Fortunately, the world has risen, or woken up, even us Southerners, to the implications and challenges some learning differences bring. Lastly, educators and school administrators have measured and noted how pervasive learning differences are in many students.

According to a recent article published by The American Association of Colleges and Universities by writer Solvegi Shmulsky, we read the following:

In 2019–20, 14 percent of public school students ages three to twenty-one received special education services, with neurodevelopmental conditions being the largest category of qualifying disabilities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. About 9 percent of US children have been diagnosed with ADHD, 8 to 10 percent with a learning disability, and 2 percent with autism…^[7]

The fact that the accommodations for the ACT are temporally coincident with the Enhanced ACT’s updates bodes well for the hundreds of thousands of students in the US with learning differences. That update ensures fairness and consistency for all test-takers. Students with accommodations can experience the same improvements in the timing and format of the new updates.

How Will the ACT Fee Waiver Support This Change?

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The ACT Fee Waiver will support the full flexibility of offerings. Eligible students can register for any option once registration for these new options becomes available ^[8]

The ACT Fee Waiver program remains in place to ensure equitable access to the test. Eligible students will continue to receive waivers covering the core test fees, with the flexibility to add optional sections, such as Science and Writing, at no additional cost. This ensures that students from all financial backgrounds can use the ACT’s enhanced format without financial barriers limiting their testing options.

How Should Students Prepare for the Enhanced ACT?

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While the content of the ACT remains consistent, students must eventually adjust their preparation to account for the new timing and structure. Practice tests, timing drills, and updated materials will be essential for mastering the enhanced ACT. The ACT has announced on its FAQ page that practice materials will be available in Early 2025.

Odyssey College Prep will offer resources tailored to the new format, including strategies to help students maximize their performance under the updated conditions.

We’ve partnered with the EdTechStart-up Achievable as our favored ACT platform. We don’t just use their software; my team and I wrote their entire ACT course. We’ll be working with them closely when the updated content for the Enhanced ACT emerges. To start practicing for the test today using Achievable, click the Affiliate Link Below:

However, in the meantime, the content of the test will not differ much from its current version. The ACT said this on the matter:

Current practice tests and available ACT test prep materials are still great for preparing because there has been no significant change in the types of knowledge and skills measured by the ACT test with the enhancements.^[9]

Most of the same rules on the English test will still apply. Likewise, the same goes for reading, science, and math. The writing ACT section, while optional, won’t change at all.

Do I Have to Take Test 5?

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Starting with the April 2025 test event, testers who take this updated version of the national test will no longer take Test 5 (also known as the fifth test).^[10]

Beginning in April 2025, the ACT will no longer include Test 5, a section of unscored field-test items used for research purposes. This removal shortens the test duration and eliminates an additional burden for test-takers. By focusing exclusively on scored content, the ACT allows students to put their full effort into the sections that matter most for their college applications.

Is the ACT Going to Be Adaptive?

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No. The ACT will remain a linear test, with all students having the same chance to show their best selves from the beginning to the end of the test session.^[11]

The ACT will maintain its linear format. This means every student will see the same questions in the same order, regardless of their performance during the test. This structure contrasts with the digital SAT, which uses an adaptive format to tailor question difficulty based on student responses. By staying linear, the ACT ensures a predictable testing experience and maintains fairness for all test-takers. Students can rely on consistent preparation strategies without worrying about unexpected shifts in question difficulty.

Are There Any Changes to When Scores Will Be Delivered?

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No. Scores will still be delivered within the regular two-to eight-week window.^[12]

The ACT has confirmed that the score delivery timeline will remain the same. Test-takers can expect to receive their results within the standard 2–8 weeks after their test date. This consistency ensures that students and families can confidently plan college applications, even as the test format evolves.

Are Other Scores Changing?

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No. Other scores, such as the section scores (English, Math, Reading, and Science) and optional Writing scores, are not changing.^[13]

While the Composite score will now exclude Science, the structure of other scores remains unchanged. Section scores for English, Math, Reading, and Science will still be reported, and students who take the Writing section will receive a separate Writing score. Additionally, students opting to include Science will still see their STEM score, calculated using their Math and Science section results. These consistent metrics ensure that test-takers receive a full picture of their performance across all sections.

Key Takeaways of the Enhanced ACT

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Here’s a recap of the most important updates:

• Shorter Test Format: Fewer questions and reduced overall duration.
• More Time Per Question: Students can think critically and answer thoughtfully.
• Optional Science Section: Take it only if it aligns with your goals.
• Revised Composite Score: Now based only on English, Math, and Reading.
• Flexible Pricing: Add-on options for Science and Writing.

These updates are designed to make the ACT more manageable while retaining its role as a trusted college admissions tool. At Odyssey College Prep, we’re here to help you navigate these changes and achieve your best score. Contact us now for a free consultation to get your/your student’s test prep started so they can enter the best colleges with the best opportunities.

Author

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Marc Gray is the owner of Odyssey College Prep. He is an avid blogger who writes about the intricacies of college admissions, aptitude testing, and standardized testing. He lives in Arkansas with his wife, Nikki, and their two infuriatingly fun and poorly behaved-dogs.

References

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^[1] Mindprint Learning. “Learning Traits.” Mindprint Blog, https://blog.v2.mindprintlearning.com/uncategorized/learning-traits/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

^[2] Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation. “About Aptitudes.” Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, https://www.jocrf.org/about-aptitudes/. Accessed 9 January 2025.

^[3] US NEWS. “University of Pennsylvania Admissions – US News Best Colleges.” USNews.com, https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-pennsylvania-3378/applying. Accessed 9 January 2025.

^[4] Bergin, Mike, and Amy Seeley. “Navigating the Competitive Landscape of Computer Science and Engineering Admissions.” Tests and the Rest Podcast, featuring Dr. Jennifer Stephan, TestBright, https://gettestbright.com/navigating-the-competitive-landscape-of-computer-science-and-engineering-admissions/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

^[5] ACT. “Fees.” ACT, https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration/fees.html. Accessed 8 January 2025.

^[6] ACT. “ACT Test Enhancements.” ACT, 11 September 2024, https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-changes/enhancements.html. Accessed 8 January 2025.

^[7] Shmulsky, Solvegi. “Neurodiversity Is Diversity: How Educators Can Support Students Who Learn Differently.” Liberal Education, Winter 2022, American Association of Colleges and Universities, https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/articles/neurodiversity-is-diversity. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

^[8] ACT. “ACT Test Enhancements.” ACT, 11 September 2024, https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-changes/enhancements.html. Accessed 8 January 2025.

^[9] ACT. “ACT Test Enhancements.” ACT, https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-changes/enhancements.html. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

^[10] Ibid

^[11] Ibid

^[12] Ibid

^[13] Ibid