Roughly a year after it was first announced, the Enhanced ACT test has nearly completed its “soft-launch.” While many initial questions have been answered, considerable doubt still remains about the new test’s functionality, scoring, and implementation. With the final Saturday administration of the legacy version of the test just around the corner (July 12th), we will look at the current state of the Enhanced ACT and the hesitations we have surrounding the test.
Key Changes
Beyond introducing the option of computer-based testing for all testers, the Enhanced ACT is ushering in considerable structural changes to its format. Boasting 44 fewer questions and clocking in at 70 minutes shorter (with no Science) than the legacy format, the Enhanced ACT is billed as a more streamlined and manageable experience. Furthermore, it aims to address what has historically been legacy testers’ most common complaint: time per question.
On the Enhanced ACT, each section has been shortened as follows:
- English: from 45 minutes for 75 items to 35 minutes for 50 items
- Math: from 60 minutes for 60 questions to 50 minutes for 45 items
* The number of answer choices per question has also been reduced from 5 to 4
- Reading: from 35 minutes for 40 questions to 40 minutes for 36 items
These changes give students markedly more time per questions: 17 percent more for English questions, 27 percent more for Math and Reading questions.
Most strikingly, the Science section is now considered optional. A student’s Science score will no longer be factored into their composite score, which is now, instead, an average of English, Math, and Reading. Students who opt to take the science section will also receive a “STEM” score, which averages that students’ best Math and Science scores. The Enhanced version of the Science section still contains 40 items, but the timing has been increased from 35 minutes to 40 minutes, giving students 29 percent more time per question.
Unscored Field Test items (or “experimental questions”) have been administered to students during certain legacy test administrations as a 20-minute “5th Test.” On the Enhanced ACT, Field Test items are mixed randomly throughout the test, in some cases resulting in significant scoring variations.
The optional Writing Section remains largely unchanged between the legacy and Enhanced versions of the tests.
Timeline
The Enhanced ACT was first introduced as a pilot for 8,000 U.S.- based students in October 2024 in both paper and digital formats. The digital version was subsequently “soft-launched” as a limited option for students for the April, June, and forthcoming July 2025 administrations.
September 6, 2025 will be the official global launch date for the Enhanced ACT. At that time, U.S.-based students will have the option to choose a paper-based or computer-based administration. Those who choose a computer-based exam can opt to bring their own device or use a test center computer, based on availability.
District and State testing, which is offered to some U.S. students during the school day, will continue to administer the legacy-based test through the rest of the year. The rollout for Enhanced school-day testing will take place in Spring 2026.
The ACT has been computer-based for all students testing outside the U.S. since 2018. Computer-based testing, for the moment only on test center computers, will remain these students’ only option for the Enhanced ACT.
Although the launch dates have been met, some of the ancillary deadlines were missed – such as practice material not being available until after the October 2024 pilot – and some of the initially announced functionality has yet to be implemented.
Moving Goalposts
Although the Enhanced ACT’s Pearson TestNav online platform was promised to rival that of the computer-adaptive SAT, College Board’s Bluebook app is much sleeker and more intuitive by comparison. The Enhanced ACT online platform available to students during the soft-launch feels unfinished; it is a barely-updated version of the computer-based platform currently used by international students.
Testing tools are clunky. Highlights a student makes on a Reading passage disappear if that student moves to a new question. Annotation tools are not available for Science graphs, removing a key strategy from computer-based testers – but not for those taking the paper based-test.
The initial rollout announcement promised a built-in DESMOS calculator, one of the most useful tools on the SAT platform, but students who participated in the soft-launch were only granted access to a far-less powerful scientific calculator with an inferior interface to most handheld counterparts.
The option for students to bring their own device has not been available for the soft-launch dates, and students have reported issues with Chromebooks provided by testing centers. Some devices had hardware issues, while others were incompatible with the resolution requirements of TestNav platform, causing parts of some students’ screens to not be visible during testing.
With the release of the new ACT Gateway app this week, we can hope that these functionality issues will be smoothed over by the official launch date. The ACT Gateway app in its current form, however, does not inspire confidence. An ersatz of the SAT’s Bluebook app, ACT Gateway contains neither the functionality – past test scores, a preview of the platform, in-app practice tests – nor the flair of the former.
A comparison of the user interfaces are included below:
Additionally, unlike Bluebook, ACT Gateway is not supported on ipads or tablets, and Chromebook users bringing their own device will need admin assistance to set up the platform.
It is reasonable to expect that there will be improvements made to the platform between now and September. Nonetheless, keeping in mind the missteps thus far and the fact that the ACT company is operating with a reduced workforce, a smooth student experience on the official launch date is far from guaranteed.
Scoring Concerns
While many students will be pleased with a quicker test with fewer questions, the process of shortening the test has led to a narrower difficulty spread and greater scoring variability.
A quarter of the items on the Math section have been removed for the Enhanced test, and based on initial practice material, the vast majority of removed questions have been easy, without any redistribution of difficulty for the remaining questions. Hence, the Enhanced Math contains a greater share of difficult questions, perhaps counterbalancing the advantage of more time per question.
The English section has been especially truncated, with the number of scored items decreasing by 47 percent – from 75 to 40 (10 of the 50 questions are unscored “field test” items). This abbreviation has led to a much more aggressive scoring curve. Whereas the top-end of most legacy scoring curves gave students room for misses (1-2 misses could still yield a 36, 3-4 misses could still yield a 35), in the new system, a single question could be worth up to 2 scaled points. Missing 2 English questions could, thus, theoretically drop a student a full composite point.
Although these differences are stark, the test’s structural changes have had the most impact on scoring for the Reading section. While only 4 items have been removed from the section, bringing the total number down to 36, 9 of these questions (25%) are unscored field test items. Moreover, all of these experimental questions appear in a single passage, resulting in only 3 of the 4 presented passages and corresponding question sets contributing to a student’s score. As timing continues to be a major hurdle for students on this section, even after the Enhanced ACT’s reductions, the placement of the field test items could result in wildly variant students’ scores across multiple tests.
One of the most common strategies for mid-range scorers on the Reading section is for the student to spend their time maximizing accuracy on 3 out of the 4 passages, guessing on the fourth passage’s questions when out of time. If a student were to embrace this strategy on the Enhanced test, they could see vastly different scores based on the random placement of the unscored passage. In cases where one of the student’s chosen passages is experimental, that student would have only attempted two-thirds of the scored questions and, even if they correctly answered everything they attempted, would score in the mid-20s. Meanwhile, if a student is highly accurate on the three passages they attempt and gets lucky in that the passage they choose to guess on is unscored, the student could receive a scaled score in the mid-30s.
Thus, we could theoretically see a swing of 10+ section points and 3+ composite points based solely on how lucky a student was on test day. Such potential for volatility threatens to undermine the scoring consistency for the test.
Enhanced Science: Lack of Consensus Admissions
The Enhanced Science section opens the door to further uncertainty.
The fact that the ACT has deemphasized the Science section does not come as a surprise. A data analysis section at heart, ACT Science has been oft-begrudged by students and carries tenuous predictive value.
That said, not all higher ed institutions are on board with deeming the Science section optional. Boston University and Pomona College have made clear in their admissions policies that the Science section will still be required for applicants who submit ACT scores, while Michigan State University and Rochester Institute of Technology recommend the Science section. As of this writing, only 14 schools – including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Stanford, and Georgia Tech – have deemed the section as “optional” or “not required,” and only Brigham Young-Provo and University of Colorado-Boulder are not considering submitted Science scores.
The vast majority of U.S. colleges and universities – and all international institutions – have therefore not yet weighed in on how they will factor ACT science scores into admissions decisions. Students should hence be very careful in viewing this section as “optional.”
Next Steps
For all the reasons above, we remain cautious about the Enhanced ACT, especially its digital version. Updates and platform changes remain fluid. With this fluidity in mind, we are advising that a student should focus on the ACT only in cases where they have committed to the test – and only if they are scoring at a significant advantage vs. the SAT.
For U.S.-based students who do pursue the ACT, we suggest targeting school-day tests, if they are able, as these tests will still be administered this year in the legacy format. If not, we recommend sticking with the paper-based version. Be aware, many sites that offer the paper-based test in September and October sold out of seats within hours when registration opened on June 23rd. We therefore strongly advise families to sign up for tests in advance – and as soon as possible.
We also recommend that ACT testers sit for the optional science section. With so many schools having not yet weighed in on whether they require or recommend the section, it is a good idea for students to hedge their bets.The Writing section can be skipped unless a student is applying to one of the very few institutions that require it, notably both NUS and Nanyang Tech in Singapore.
Non-U.S. students and the majority of U.S. students for whom there is not a strong case to be made for the ACT are advised to focus on the more reliable path presented by the SAT.
Written by
Zachary Adler
Since 2010, Zach has been helping students achieve their college readiness goals, specializing in all sections of the SAT, ACT, PSAT, and SHSAT. Prior to joining Onsen, Zach worked for a global investment firm, as well as in various roles in the education space. He has served as a youth mentor and has run college readiness information sessions for students in under-resourced communities. Additionally, Zach is a writer and filmmaker. He is an International Baccalaureate scholar and a graduate of Boston University.