ACT

WHAT TO KNOW

Far too many people overlook the ACT as a viable option because they don’t know enough about it. It is a fair, straight-forward test that EVERY college accepts (and respects equally to the SAT), and it hasn’t undergone any massive structural changes recently — only tiny ones here and there, as ACT rolls out their changes slowly and carefully. The biggest challenge with the ACT is that it moves quickly, so students have to learn to keep pace (which we can certainly help them with) — but it isn’t as tricky as the SAT. ACT math goes through Algebra II, and the hardest questions touch on some early trigonometry and statistics concepts.

One aspect of the ACT that scares a lot of kids off is the Science section, but be aware that it does NOT test science beyond the 7th or 8th grade level (gas vs. liquid vs. solid, and so forth)…it’s testing a student’s ability to read and interpret graphs and charts. That’s it! Virtually no outside knowledge is needed.

NOTE: For those students who don’t know which exam they want to pursue (ACT or SAT), we offer a program that is an efficient, cost-effective way to truly determine which test is the best fit. We encourage you to explore our  group programs to learn more about what they offer, how they work, et cetera.

WHAT WE RECOMMEND

The ACT is typically better for students who can pace themselves well and are good at solving straight-forward questions. Since there is no penalty for wrong answers, educated guesses are encouraged here — so no worrying about whether or not to trust your hunch.

Our tutors will help students review all of the material tested on the ACT, from grammar rules to function problems. But mastering content is only half the battle. The greatest challenge the ACT presents is time management, and our tutors work with students to break down the longer sections (Math is 60 questions in 60 minutes!) into bite-sized pieces. We strongly encourage students to use a silent stopwatch to keep pace throughout the test, checking their progress against particular time markers.

We typically suggest that students take the ACT 2-3 times, spreading their hours of test preparation over those weeks/months. This doesn’t necessarily mean more preparation — just not as concentrated. “Putting all your eggs in one basket,” so to speak, puts undue pressure on a single sitting, which often results in less-than-stellar scores — not to mention if something goes wrong and negatively impacts your score! Misbubbling, fire alarms going off, a nasty flu, or an annoying neighbor can all impact your performance, and if you sunk all of your prep into this one test date, you’re out of luck.

If a student takes it once after covering the fundamentals with his/her tutor and then reviews the results with said tutor, the tutor can then see how well the student implemented certain strategies under pressure and proceed to tweak them for the second sitting. You’re also increasing the chances of benefitting from a Reading passage you recognize (after all, passages are excerpted from real books!), a Science passage that is just common sense, a Math section that doesn’t have as many of a particular problem type you hate, or a Writing passage that tests more rules that you are familiar with than ones you aren’t. A lot of it comes down to chance, so don’t let everything ride on a single test date.

One cautionary note: the #1 challenge the ACT presents test-takers with is the requirement to move quickly and efficiently through the sections. Therefore, they are typically more hesitant to offer accommodations than College Board, as they feel it gives students a disproportionate advantage. Of course, if you approach them with the proper documentation, your request for extended time should be granted. For more information, please visit our Extended Time page.

Explore our various Classic packages, Classic+ packages, and Founder’s Circle packages to determine which is best for you!
 

INFORMATION ON UPCOMING ACT CHANGES

ACT, Inc. will be making substantial changes to the test starting in 2025. Below is a breakdown of what we know so far. 

New Features

• Optional Science section
  • Like the Writing (essay) portion of the test, the Science section will become optional. 
• Shorter Time
  • For those taking only the core sections of the test, the overall time length will be 50 minutes shorter: 2 hours and 5 minutes instead of 2 hours and 55 minutes.
• Fewer questions
  • In total the test will have 44 fewer questions.
• Fewer Math section answer options
  • The number of answer options in the Math section will be reduced from 5 to 4. 
• No fifth (experiment) section
  • Students will no longer have to take the experiment fifth section of the test. Instead, and similar to the new SAT’s system, the experimental (or “pretest”) questions will be suffused throughout the entire test, which means examinees will not know which questions count and which ones don’t. 

New Format

Together, all of these new changes give us the following new format:

• English: 35-minute section with 50 questions
• Math: 50-minute section with 45 items
• Reading: 40-minute section with 36 items
• (Optional) Science: 40-minute section with 40 questions
• (Optional) Essay: 40-minute section with one writing prompt

Timeline

Below is the rollout schedule provided by ACT:

• September, October, and December 2024 + February 2025 ACT dates
  • Only the current paper version is available.
• Early 2025
  • A sample of the new test and materials will become available.
• April, June, and July 2025 ACT dates
  • The new version is available, but only for those who register for the online test.
  • The current paper version will still be available.
  • Registration for these dates will open sometime in December 2024. 
• September 2025 onward
  • The current paper version will be retired and only the new version (in both online and paper formats) will be offered. 

Advice for students

Given this timeline, we make the following recommendations:

• Current Juniors
  • 11th graders can continue their current prep program and not worry about the changes. The current test will be available until July of next year, so there is no need to pivot to the new format. Of course, juniors can take the new test if they want to, but since there are no prep materials available yet, we don’t recommend that until we have more information. 
• Sophomores
  • 10th graders (and all younger students) should plan to take this new version of the ACT, since it will be the version in play by the time they begin serious prep work. We recommend sophomores take a dual (SAT and ACT ) diagnostic around winter break 2024 or spring of 2025 to determine which test is right for them.