ACT Announces Changes to the Test: What Does it Mean for You?
ACT recently announced significant changes that will go in affect September 2020. These changes are in administering, super scoring recommendation and retesting that will impact those students taking ACT test Class of 2021 and beyond.
The changes that are coming to ACT in September 2020:
ACT Section Retesting – After having taken at least one full ACT test (writing optional), students will have the option to retest only specific sections (English, Math, Reading, Science and/or Writing), which they want to improve. This will eliminate retaking the entire test.
Online Testing – Students will have the option to take the test online rather than pen and paper test. Online testing will be used especially when students are retesting for an individual section. Online testing will have the benefit of receiving scores in a couple of days as opposed to 10 days or more.
ACT Superscoring policy –ACT has traditionally encouraged colleges to accept the best composite score out of 36, which is unlike the SAT who allows colleges to decide how they want to superscore across multiple test dates and scores. ACT is now updating this recommendation for colleges. Beginning with next admission cycle, for Class of 2021 ACT would report a superscore for students who have taken multiple administrations of ACT.
Read the ACT announcement regarding the changes
WHAT DOES ALL OF THESE CHANGES MEAN FOR YOU?
These changes will have a meaningful impact on the student’s experience of the ACT test. It is a common knowledge that ACT is a faster paced test. Even though SAT and ACT are roughly the same duration, students come out feeling that ACT is a faster paced test that requires much more emphasis on attention and processing speed for 3+ hours on all sections than the SAT.
When it comes to ACT, the primary reason for students retaking the test is because their scores on one or two sections do not reflect their true potential. Another reason for retesting is when students discover they need the Essay portion of the test also for the colleges they are interested in. They would retake the whole test just to be able to write the Essay.
With the option of retaking the test with only one section at a time and ACT permitting superscoring, it should alleviate test anxiety for students who feel that their performance on the full test is impacted by the inability to maintain momentum and focus throughout the test. Students will now be able to just retest the specific sections, including writing.
WHAT DOES IT NOT MEAN? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE SAT TEST?
I am sure these ACT changes will force Collegeboard to think carefully about what, if anything needs to be done. So while we await their next move, for students evaluating their SAT/ ACT options, here is how I see it:
Even with all these changes, ACT will not be the right test for many students. Pacing is a challenge for students whether they are taking one section or the entire test. Hence you want to start/focus on the test that has overall momentum for you – SAT or ACT. The objective is to achieve your score goals in a minimum number of attempts.
