Is it worth taking both versions of the ACT?
Yes; but first, a short detour to discuss the other big test and why “version hedging” can help you.
Students gearing up to take the SAT may be aware that its format has recently changed in four quite dramatic ways. First, the SAT is now digital by default, although pen-and-paper tests are still allowed on request. Second, the SAT has become modular, meaning that each section (English/“EBRW” and Math) has a standardized Module 1 which leads to either the easier Module 2A or the more difficult Module 2B, based on a test-taker’s performance in the first half. Third, it’s been shortened, from the old 3+ hours to a slimmer 2 hours and 15 minutes. Fourth and finally, the sections themselves are altered; the College Board replaced the Math portion’s calculator/no-calculator sections with an all-calc, two-module section, and completely overhauled the EBRW passage-based and grammar sections into a series of one small paragraph-sized vignettes individual to each question.
In other words, the new SAT is essentially more like the GRE, the main test college students take for grad school applications. This matters a lot because the test experience will change, and so will the optimal study strategies. But it also matters because everyone is different, and unfortunately, some might have found the old SAT easier than the new one - perhaps resulting in a higher score or fewer retakes than the new, GRE-style format.
To be clear, most of us have no idea which version would be “better” for our unique skillset (test affinity is more complicated than it appears). Besides, for the majority of students, knowing their ideal test type wouldn’t be much help anyway because the College Board did not allow test-takers to choose between formats. But a few lucky people with good timing were able to obtain a sort of “version superscore” by taking the SAT at least twice - once before March 2024 and once afterwards - and benefiting from whichever format fit them best.
Now, the ACT. Why do I bring all of this up in an article about the ACT? Because as of this writing, we’re in a short window of time where the changes that happened to the SAT are about to happen to its main competitor. The ACT will debut its new version next year on a rolling basis with online access starting April 0f 2025, pen-and-paper access in September, and broader school access by spring of 2026 (pending any delays based on feedback). Students accustomed to practice ACT exams will have to adjust to several big changes, and for some, those may not be to their benefit.
The number of questions will drop from 215 to 176. As I’ll discuss below, fewer questions may not mean less work for the test-taker.
The amount of time will drop from 195 minutes to 125. This is probably welcome news to everybody, but apart from getting some of your day (and sanity) back, the real number to watch is time per question. Students got about 1 minute, 6 seconds per question on the old version, but they’ll get closer to a minute and a half each on the new one (1 minute, 24 seconds). This makes a big difference for test-taking strategies, but it also comes with an unfortunate potential downside that I’ll cover later.
The Science section is now optional. This feels oddly understated; after all, the ACT has been “the standardized test with a Science section” now that SAT subject tests are a creature of the distant past. At the same time, the ACT is mirroring the SAT’s on-again, off-again relationship with cross-subject scores in an effort to please both the “Science section scares me” and “I want to show off how much I love Science” crowds, so students will get an additional “STEM score” on top of the others if they choose to take Science.
Math questions will downsize from 5 Multiple Choice answers to 4. This change is categorized under the ACT’s “I need more time!”, but in practice, fewer MC options doesn’t really save people time so much as they increase the likelihood of a random guess being correct, in this case from 20% to 25% (or a 25 percent increase over base rate, which can definitely increase your score by up to a point). Given that both versions of the ACT don’t penalize you for wrong answers, this will be a nice boost for anybody running out of time, but will especially help those who struggle more with the time allotted, pushing the average upwards a bit.
All of these changes taken together suggest that new ACT questions will likely be harder on average - at least once the new version finishes its year of beta testing. This is a hot take from Ryan and not an ACT announcement, but I feel pretty confident that the difficulty per question is going to increase somewhat on the new version. Remember, the ACT is holding its other variables equal. It won’t deliberately make the test easier, although it can certainly streamline and simplify the experience of taking a test. The addition of new choices and the reduction of time and questions will probably result in other parts of the seesaw getting pushed upwards, whether more difficult questions or a harder time conveying your aptitude to schools.
Fewer questions mapping to an identical 36-point scale means that the discretized impact or effect size per question increases. In statistical language, having fewer data points to asses your aptitude means a smaller mean regression effect with more variance, as the score becomes increasingly “distortionary to outliers”. A lucky test day could put you a whole point ahead of your expected performance - or behind, forcing an unwanted retake or a final score below your potential.
More time per question is usually a sign that the questions demand more time to understand properly - ask most college students and professors. Add to that the smaller number of MC answers per Math question, and you’re left with less “noise” but probably a little more nuance between options.
Making anything optional on standardized tests is a potential trap. Because standardized tests are used to compare you against your peers, overall population statistics can really define your success in college admissions; and when most people uneasy about their score range decide not to participate, those who remain are pitted against other members of a self-selected group, rather than compared to the actual population.
This was a main complaint during the fully test-optional period of 2020-2022. Students who achieved impressive scores after hours of practice were sometimes stuck in the bottom quartile of those who chose to submit scores, despite being in the top quartile of where all students would be given past trends. Colleges could infer performance using past years, but that is objectively a worse indicator than having current data. The ambiguity of a percentile-based distribution without most of its distribution was a big part of why some schools chose to bring test requirements back starting in 2023.
To tl;dr my detailed prediction: on the new ACT, every question will take longer, each question will matter more to your score, and score averages will likely drift upwards as Science fans dominate the Science section and Math random guesses hit the mark 25% more often than before.
This isn’t intended to scare you! Many people do much, much better in a testing environment which prioritizes depth of understanding over speed of recall. The current ACT is famous for rewarding fast test-takers more than the SAT, but the new ACT (like the new SAT) is making an explicit commitment to change this in response to student feedback. Separately, students pursuing STEM may face a more competitive group of Science-section peers, but they might also benefit from a “credential bump” during admissions if most students don’t even have an ACT STEM score to submit at all. We’ll have to wait and see how colleges react to the changes in the next few years before knowing for sure who benefits.
The real point is, if you are a student thinking about taking the ACT and you aren’t certain which format you prefer, you have an unusual opportunity to get what many SAT test-takers missed: the chance at a “version superscore” by doing both. You can take the old ACT this year on September 14, October 26, December 14, or on February 8 of 2025, and then you can also take the new one after the April 2025 rollout of the new version. The ACT has been explicit that “Scores from tests taken prior to the rollout of the new Composite score will not change” and the scale remains 1-36. That means your scores are less likely to be judged unfairly by colleges (especially since many admissions officers will be unsure how to “curve” the new ACT at first).
Almost every test prep nerd (including this one) strongly recommends taking the test at least twice anyway; with this rare cosmic alignment, you might get even more of the boost you need.
If you still aren’t sure what’s best for you, please reach out to us at our info line. We’d be happy to address your questions and concerns about the test, and more than willing to figure out how aalee can get you the scores you need to stand out at admissions time.
-Ryan
