The ACT Is Changing. Here's What We Know So Far

5:16 pm ET, Monday, July 15, 2024:

My phone starts blowing up with text messages from my team. The ACT announced at its annual conference earlier that day that it would be making the science section of the ACT optional starting in the spring of 2025. This is huge news for a variety of reasons. But it's complicated and will cause confusion too.

The changes:

Making the science section optional means that the test will still be using a 1-36 scale, but the composite (total) score will now comprise only three sections: English, reading, and math. If a student chooses to take the ACT with the science section, the science score will appear on a score report. However, it won't be factored into the composite score. The option to take the ACT with or without the science section will be similar to the ACT's current writing section. And that's where it gets complicated.

So many options, so much confusion:

When the ACT introduced the optional writing section back in 2005, students and parents weren't sure what test to take: the traditional ACT or the more expensive and longer ACT with Writing test. Interestingly, this was the same year the SAT announced an essay section. I'll come back to this toe-to-toe competition between the two testing giants in a bit. For now, though, it's helpful to look at how colleges handled this wrinkle almost 20 years ago.

Many of the selective colleges, including the University of California (one of the largest producers of applications), required the ACT with Writing test (and the SAT with Essay) for years. But by 2018, there were only 25 colleges in the country that still required the ACT with Writing test. In 2024, there are very few colleges left that still require the ACT with Writing—Martin Luther College in Minnesota and Soka University in California among them.

However, when students sign up to take the ACT, they still don't know which test to take. They often sign up for the ACT with Writing not knowing they won't need it. Students spend more money than they need to and they end up having to take a longer, more grueling test.

So why does the ACT continue to offer the ACT with Writing then? Money. And, they have a number of contracts with states like Hawaii, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wisconsin that make the ACT with Writing a graduation requirement. I hope those states realize they are spending more money on the ACT with Writing for all but a few colleges in the country.

Colleges' responses:

Because the ACT just made this announcement, colleges have not formally responded to how they will handle this new option which impacts the high school classes of 2026 and beyond. I suspect that like the ACT with Writing test that was introduced years ago, some of the more selective colleges may require the science section—at least initially. I anticipate the science section's value in the admissions process decreasing in the coming years, though.

In the meantime, students will be faced with a lot of options if they want to take the ACT: the new ACT (which comprises the English, reading, and math sections), ACT with Science, ACT with Writing, or the ACT with Science and Writing. The dizzying number of options may lead more students to the SAT—that's the opposite of what the ACT needs.

9:00 am ET, Thursday, July 17, 2024:

It's been three days since the ACT announced its decision to make the science section optional and thus the test shorter. On the surface, this sounds like a win for students. However, it's more of a gamble for the testing agency. Few people know that the ACT was recently purchased by a private equity firm, Nexus Capital Management, fundamentally changing it from a nonprofit to a for-profit company committed to answering to its investors and being financially successful. Yet, the ACT remains in the shadow of the more popular standardized test, the SAT. Any move that the ACT does is because it needs to stay competitive with the SAT.