Changes are coming to the ACT in 2025 and 2026! Read on for specifics about what the changes will entail and when the changes will be implemented.
What about the ACT is changing?
There will be three main changes to the ACT:
- The Science section will be optional.
- The remaining required sections (English, Math, and Reading) will each have fewer questions and allow for more time per question. Total testing time for the revised ACT (English, Math, and Reading) will be 2 hours and 5 minutes versus 2 hours and 55 minutes for the current ACT (English, Math, Reading, and Science). Testing time for students who take the revised ACT with the optional Science section will be 2 hours and 45 minutes.
- Unscored experimental questions will be included in each test section. Students will not know which questions are scored versus unscored.
Note that, even with these changes, students will still be able to choose between taking a paper or online version of the test. As is the case now, the online version of the test will NOT be adaptive (i.e. the difficulty level of the test questions will not adjust based on performance on earlier questions). It will continue to be linear.
Will these changes impact test scoring?
Each of the four test sections (English, Math, Reading, and Science) will continue to be scored on a scale of 1 to 36. However, the composite score will be the rounded average of the student’s English, Math, and Reading section scores. Students who take the optional Science section will receive a separate Science score (on the 1 to 36 scale), but it will not impact their composite score.
What is the timeline for these changes?
ACT is taking a staged approach to these changes, rolling them out from April 2025 through February 2026. Starting in April 2025, those students taking the online version of the ACT on a national (weekend) test date will see these changes reflected, including the new composite score calculation. The paper version of the ACT offered on national test dates will remain unchanged until September 2025. At that point, the new composite score calculation (rounded average of the student’s English, Math, and Reading section scores) will be used for all ACT test forms. The paper and online versions of the ACT administered on State and District School-Day test dates will remain unchanged until February 2026, except for the implementation of the new composite score calculation in September 2025, as noted above.
With so many different test forms and versions, we realize this can be confusing. We’ve created the table below to help visualize and simplify the timeline for the various changes:
| April 2025 |
September 2025 |
February 2026 |
|
Revised ACT for national online version only
Composite score calculation change for national online version only
|
 
Revised ACT for national paper version and international online version as well
Composite score calculation change for all ACT tests
|
Revised ACT for State and District School-Day online and paper versions
|
Generally, the availability of test sites for national online testing has been fairly limited. Therefore, most students will likely not have the option to take the revised ACT until September 2025 when the test changes are rolled out in the paper version as well.
Are the test questions and test content changing?
Though there will be no significant change in the types of knowledge and skills the ACT measures, the revised ACT will include a few changes to test questions and content:
- Every English item will include a question stem, and some English passages will be shorter.
- New types of English passages may be included.
- Math questions will have four answer choices rather than five.
- There may be small shifts in the distribution of Math questions across categories and topics.
- Some Reading passages will be shorter, and a greater percentage of questions will come from the Integration of Knowledge and Ideas category.
- Science will include more items requiring prior scientific knowledge.
- New Science topics may be introduced.
My student will be taking the ACT in 2025. How do these changes impact them?
Students taking the ACT prior to April 2025:
- Because the changes to the ACT don’t begin to roll out until April 2025, if a student is taking the ACT on a test date prior to then, the changes do not impact them at all (unless they plan to take the test again from April 2025 forward).
Students taking the ACT in Spring or Fall 2025 through School-Day Testing:
- For those students taking the ACT in Spring or Fall 2025 through the State and District School-Day testing program, the changes do not impact them either, as the revised ACT won’t be offered for school-day testing until February 2026.
Students taking the ACT in April/June/July 2025 on a national test date:
- For those students taking the ACT in Spring or Summer 2025 on a national (weekend) test date, there are several factors to keep in mind when assessing the impact of these changes. As noted above, the availability of test sites for national online testing has generally been very limited. As demand for seats at those test sites increases with the introduction of the revised ACT, availability of seats at those test sites is likely to become even more scarce. Additionally, registration for the April through July 2025 national test dates is not expected to open until December 2024, so students won’t know until then if they are actually able to secure a spot at a test site that offers online testing. Finally, though students can and should continue to practice for the revised ACT using the currently available prep materials, ACT is not slated to release updated test specifications or a revised ACT practice test until early 2025.
- Given all of the above considerations, it is likely that most students testing on a national test date will not have the option to take the revised ACT until September 2025 when the test changes are rolled out in the paper version as well. Therefore, we recommend that students testing in April through July 2025 plan to prep for and take the paper ACT in its current format.
Students taking the paper or online ACT on a national test date from September 2025 forward:
- As of September 2025, the revised ACT will be the only test version available to students testing on a national test date. These students should plan to prep for and take the revised ACT. They will have the option to register for the paper or online version, though testing sites for the online version may continue to be limited.
We will continue to provide updates about the ACT test changes as more information becomes available.
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