Have you heard the news?? The ACT is onboarding some big changes to the ACT standardized exam. On October 8th, 2019, ACT announced three major changes to go into effect starting September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes have been pushed back to an undetermined date but can be expected to start sometime in spring 2021. Here, we’ll walk you through what changes to expect and how those could affect your student’s ACT experience.

The ACT and SAT are well-known standardized exams that allow college and university admissions teams to compare applicants from all over the world with common data points. In recent years, standardized college entrance exams have been facing scrutiny in the wake of events like the “College Admissions Scandal,” and some colleges have chosen to move away from relying so heavily on standardized test scores when evaluating prospective students. Nonetheless, we don’t expect these exams to go away anytime soon, but we can expect modifications to college entrance exams soon.

The ACT has recently done a lot of research and work toward making the ACT a better reflection of a student’s academic ability, as well as making the ACT a less stressful exam for high schoolers around the world. Recent ACT research has looked into the ability of superscoring to predict a student’s success at the college level, as well as how test anxiety can affect students on test day. Just this week, the ACT has announced three big changes that will affect students taking the ACT in the near future. Originally slated to begin September 2020, the roll out of these new testing options has been postponed to allow more students to be able to take their initial full ACT exams. Many students had their test days cancelled due to COVID-19 disrupting the April and June test dates. Rather than begin offering new testing options this fall, the ACT has added more fall 2020 test dates to allow as many students as possible to take the full exam this fall.

CHANGE #1 : Students can retake individual sections of the ACT

Historically, if students are unhappy with their ACT scores — whether it be their composite scores or an individual section score— they’ve been required to retake the entire ACT exam if they want to try to raise their scores. The ACT consists of four standard subsections — English, math, reading, and science — and an optional writing section. The full test takes about 3 hours to complete, and students are given separate scores for each individual section, as well as a composite score that is an average of these section scores.

With the new testing options on the way, students will be able to choose whether they want to retake all sections of the ACT or just certain sections. This means that students will be able to concentrate their efforts on areas where they are struggling without having to complete the entire test again. Currently, if a student is unhappy only with their English score and decides to try the ACT again, they will also have to complete the math, reading, and science sections again. That means the student will have to spend time studying and preparing for these other three sections again, even if they were previously satisfied with their scores. If a student chooses not to study for these other sections, they run the risk of these scores going down on their retake exam.

Allowing students the option to focus on the subsections separately will help students’ ACT scores to reflect their understanding and progress in these individual areas. All students will still have to start by taking the full ACT exam, but then additional attempts can either include the full test or just certain subsections. Section retests will be identical in terms of content examined, time constraint, and format, and retesting will happen on the regular national ACT test dates. Students may take up to three section retests on any one test date, though there are no limits on the number of times a student may take a retest. 

We expect to learn a lot more about the new subsection retesting policy leading up to spring 2021.

CHANGE #2 : Students can opt to take the ACT online

Starting next spring, students can elect to either take the ACT in paper version or online. The main perk to a new online option is faster reporting of ACT scores. Students taking the exam online can expect to receive their multiple choice scores as quickly as 2 days after taking the exam. This is a pretty significant contrast from the paper version, which takes approximately 2 weeks to receive scores. Receiving scores faster could be incredibly helpful for students, particularly those that are working with college application deadlines that are quickly approaching during fall and winter of their senior years.

Allowing students to elect to continue to take the paper version of the ACT is also an asset. Many students test better when they have pencil and paper in front of them, compared to working off a computer screen. Allowing students to pick whether they want to take the paper or electronic version of the ACT allows students to choose the method that will allow them to reach their full potential.

CHANGE #3 : Students’ ACT score reports will now include a Superscore

Historically, students’ ACT score reports have included the following information: individual scores out of 36 for each subsection of the ACT exam (English, math, reading, science) and a composite score out of 36 that is an average of these four section scores.

Starting next spring, students will also see an ACT Superscore reported on their ACT score report. What exactly is an ACT Superscore? This just means taking a student’s highest score on each different section of the ACT exam, regardless of whether or not these highest scores were obtained on the same test date, and creating a composite Superscore based off of these highest scores. The Superscore is a recalculation that shows the highest possible composite score across multiple ACT tests and ACT Section Retests. It reflects the average of the four best subject scores from each of the student's ACT test attempts.

For Superscoring, a school will accept the highest score a student received in each separate category of the ACT. Colleges and universities that accept ACT Superscores will ask students to provide their HIGHEST ACT SCORE FOR EACH SECTION SEPARATELY. That means that if your science score was highest the first time you took the test, you can include that score on your application. Similarly, if your English score has gradually gone up each time you’ve taken the test, you can include your most recent English score. This will continue with your math and reading scores, and then you will calculate your Superscore based on these section highs, regardless of if all the scores were achieved on the same test date.

Recent ACT research has explored Superscoring and its ability to predict student academic ability at the college level. The results of this research shows that Superscores are actually the best indicator of how a student will perform at the college level, compared to a student’s highest composite score on one test day and their most recent composite score on one test day.

Given this new data, the ACT has elected for including a Superscore with students’ ACT score reports, which students can then send on to colleges and universities with their applications. Score report options will provide the option for students to send their best ACT test results to colleges, including a calculated ACT Superscore. While colleges will set their own policies regarding whether they accept Superscores with applications, this information will at least now be included when scores are reported to schools.  

Like all organizations, ACT is working hard to adapt to the constantly shifting regulations and guidelines put forward as they relate to COVID-19. We expect to learn a lot more in the coming months about what these changes will look like, as well as other testing changes that will likely surface.

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