ACT Changes Ahead: Shorter Test, No Required Science Section

The science section requirement is being removed from the ACT, and the test will be shorter to be more flexible and manageable for students.

The ACT Education Corp., the company behind the ACT, announced it’s making the science section optional and the core test shorter — from three to two hours — starting in spring 2025 for online testing and spring 2026 for in-school testing.

“As ACT continues to innovate and adapt, our dedication to providing accessible, reliable, and forward-thinking readiness solutions remains steadfast, ensuring every learner has the opportunity to succeed,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin wrote in an announcement about the changes.

English, reading, and math will remain core sections, and students can choose to take the science section, similar to the optional writing section. Scores will remain on the same 1-36 scale.

Reading and English passages will be shorter, with 44 fewer questions between the two sections to reduce test-taking fatigue, according to Godwin.

Recently, the SAT was similarly reduced from three to two hours. Reading passages were made shorter. And starting this year, the test went fully digital to make it more relevant and easier to give and take.

At the same time, many colleges and universities moved away from standardized tests due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, higher education institutions like Ivy Plus schools and some public universities are slowly embracing standardized testing again. They claim standardized test scores are an “important predictor of academic performance” and may have more “predictive power” than GPAs while taking pressure off other non-academic factors.

Dartmouth College, the first Ivy League school to reinstate standardized testing, stated that test scores can help students from underrepresented backgrounds by examining their scores in the context of where they’re from.

“For example, an applicant with an SAT score of 1400 has a higher probability of admission if from a high school where average SAT scores are relatively low,” the study from Dartmouth says. “Under a test-optional policy, these students are less likely to be identified and admitted.”

Not everyone shares Dartmouth’s opinion on standardized testing.

Opportunity Insights, a Harvard University-based research group, found last year that among applicants with the same SAT or ACT scores, applicants from wealthier families were twice as likely to be accepted. These students were also 15 times more likely to score 1500-plus on the SAT.

A 2023 BestColleges survey also found that most students would prefer test-optional admissions for colleges. Of the undergraduates and graduate students surveyed, 43% said standardized tests are a good measure of college readiness, 27% disagreed, and 30% were neutral.