Changes to the ACT in Spring 2025

When do the ACT Changes Take Effect?

Changes to the ACT will launch in April 2025 for national test date students. In the spring of 2026, school districts will adopt the new format.

What Will Remain the Same

The new ACT is shorter but very similar to the current ACT. The test will continue to be a linear assessment, unlike its competitor, the computer adaptive Digital SAT. This means that every student on the same form experiences the same test. Students are not tracked or limited to score ranges based on their performance early on in the test.

The optional ACT Writing section remains unchanged.

ACT scoring is still calculated with a 1 to 36 scoring scale.

What are the Main ACT Changes

The new ACT will be shorter by 50 minutes

• the Science section will be optional
• the English and Math sections will be shorter
• the composite score will be based only on English, Math, and Reading scores
• the Science and Math score will be calculated as a separate STEM score

If you take the optional Science test, the new ACT is 10 minutes shorter than the current ACT

Changes by section:

Test Section	Current	New ACT
English	45 minutes	35 minutes
Math	60 minutes	50 minutes
Reading	35 minutes	40 minutes
Science (optional)	35 minutes	40 minutes
Writing	40 minutes	40 minutes

The current ACT is 175 minutes with the Science and without the Writing section

 (appx. 3 hrs)

The New ACT Time with and without the Science Section

125 minutes (appx 2 hrs)                 without the Science section

165 minutes (2.75 hrs)                      with the Science section

The Total ACT will have 44 fewer questions as follows

The English section                 50 items vs. 75

The Math section                    45 questions vs. 60

The Reading section               36 questions vs. 40

Science has the same number of questions (40) but 5 more minutes

The optional Writing test is unchanged

Reduction in Number of Test Questions by Section

Test Section	Current	New
English	75 questions	50 questions
Math	60 questions	45 questions
Reading	40 questions	36 questions
Science	40 questions	40 questions
Writing	1 prompt	1 prompt

The ACT Science section will be optional

When students sign up for the ACT, they will be able to choose to take it with or without the Science section. The ACT Composite score will be based only on the average of English, Math, and Reading. Even if students take the Science test, their composite score will be based solely on English, Math, and Reading.

Students who opt for the Science test will receive a Science section score and a STEM score based on the average of a student’s Math and Science scores.

If students opt to take ACT Science, it will appear on their score report. It is not possible to opt out of reporting a score on any one section. Students will still have the ability to cancel an entire test score.

The New ACT Provides More Time per Question

Since there will be 44 fewer questions on the enhanced ACT, students will have more time per question. With the current version of the ACT, students are given about 49 seconds per question. On the enhanced ACT, students have about 58 seconds per question.

The Reading test is the most heavily impacted by this change. Students will have about 14 extra seconds per question.

Test Section	Current	Enhanced	Change
English	36 seconds/item	42 seconds/item	+6 seconds
Math	60 seconds/item	67 seconds/item	+7 seconds
Reading	53 seconds/item	67 seconds/item	+14 seconds
Science	53 seconds/item	60 seconds/item	+7.5 seconds
Overall, With Science	49 seconds/item	58 seconds/item	+9 seconds
Overall, No Science	48 seconds/item	57 seconds/item	+9 seconds

ACT Composite scores will be based on English, Math, and Reading only

The ACT Composite score will be computed by averaging the English, Math, and Reading scale scores and rounding to the nearest whole number.

Even if students take the Science test section, it will not be included in their composite scores. Science will be included in a separate STEM score that considers only student Math and Science scores.

This change means that two thirds of the ACT Composite score will come from the English Language Arts domain, and only one third be derived from Math. Since Math was one fourth of the composite score before, this change makes the Math section more important. That said, since Science is no longer included in the composite calculation, the overall weight of STEM-related subjects is decreasing from one half to one third.

The change in the computation of the ACT Composite score is not retroactive. Students who take the current version of the ACT will not have their scores recomputed or their Science scores disregarded once these changes take effect. Only score reports for the new ACT will use the new composite scoring methodology.

Superscores will not be recalculated when students take the new ACT.

Students taking the new ACT will receive a new superscore based on English, Math, and Reading, even if the outcome was based on a previous test format.

Students interested in superscores may want to consider taking the current test format and the new format.

The ACT English test will be shortened

The time limit for the ACT English will be 35 minutes vs. 45 minutes, a 10-minute reduction. Since there are 25 fewer questions, students will have approximately 42 seconds per question, an increase of 6 seconds per question.

The ACT Math test will be shorter

The new ACT math section will be shorter, reduced from 60 to 45 questions. The test takes less time, 50 minutes instead of 60, which will give students more than 1 minute per question, an increase pf 7 seconds (from 60 to 67) per question.

Math questions will also have 4 answer choices instead of 5, which should take less time.

The ACT will reduce the number of word problems and the number of questions related to advanced grade level topics. There will also be less Integrating Essential Skills questions (which require 2 or more discrete math skills).

The ACT Reading test be shorter and allow more time

The ACT Reading test time is increasing from 35 to 40 minutes, and the number of questions is decreasing from 40 to 36. This means that students have about 67 seconds to answer each Reading question, up from 53 seconds per question before.

Some or all of the Reading passages will be shortened. On the current ACT Reading test, passages average between 750 and 900 words.

The Integration of Knowledge and Ideas reporting category will become more important. Questions in this reporting category ask students to analyze claims, separate fact from opinion, and make connections between multiple texts.

The ACT Science test will be optional and allow more time

On the Enhanced ACT, the Science test will be optional. Students can opt to add Science to their test administration, as with the optional Writing section.

The ACT Science test will no longer factor into the ACT Composite score (1-36). Instead, it will be calculated based only on the rounded average of the scale scores on English, Math, and Reading. The ACT Science score will be included in a reported STEM score, which considers the Math and Science scale scores.

If they opt for the ACT Science test, students will be allotted 40 minutes. This is a 5-minute increase over the 35 minutes provided on the current test. This will allow students an average of 60 seconds per question, instead of 53 seconds per question.

The new ACT Science test will include at least one engineering and design passage.

On the new Science test, more questions will require background knowledge. ACT refers to the Disciplinary Core Ideas from the Next Generation Science Standards for what could be tested.