Key Takeaways:
- In response to an increasingly challenging landscape, the ACT launched the “enhanced” ACT in April of this year. The new exam aims to modernize the test and better complete with the all-digital SAT
- The new test is shorter in length, has fewer questions, makes science an optional section, and is also available in a digital format (which is NOT widely available)
- Content and question styles remain largely unchanged, but fewer questions mean more weight per question
- Data from the ACT indicates that scoring between the “legacy” ACT and the “enhanced” ACT should be consistent, meaning that a student scoring a 26 on the legacy ACT will likely score a 26 on the new test.
Over the past month, Flying Colors’ instructors were able to test drive the ACT’s recently released practice tests for the enhanced exam and were pleased to find that the ACT’s content and question style was largely unchanged. Though there were fewer questions overall, the questions themselves, their primary focus, and the material they covered were all very similar to what is currently found on the ACT.
The biggest differences between the current ACT and the new ACT were more related to proportions of question types. Within the English section, the ACT now has fewer questions focused on rules of grammar and proportionately more “rhetorical skills” questions, which typically deal with the expression of ideas and clarity of language. Math seemed to include more questions focused on algebra I and II, geometry, and statistics and probability. The reading test seemed to be the least changed, as that test continues to offer four passages, though each passage now has only nine related questions versus the traditional ten. Similarly, science remained largely unchanged, though students now have 40 minutes to answer 40 questions.
For Flying Colors, all of this suggests that students preparing for the current version of the ACT should be well versed in the types of questions and content observed on the new exam.
Interestingly, it will likely be what test-takers cannot observe that may shape up to be the biggest difference between the two tests. Unlike the traditional, legacy ACT, which featured a fifth section in which the ACT “tested” questions for future exams, the enhanced ACT will now include up to 10 “experimental” or “field test” questions in a given section that will NOT count, but will be used by the ACT to test question “reliability and validity”. The English test will include 10 such questions, the math section four such questions, reading will have nine and science six.
Given this, students will be able to make far fewer mistakes in order to earn the same score. The most glaring example of this is in English, where the student’s performance will be measured by just 40 questions (versus the current 75) due to the combination of a reduced number of questions AND the introduction of ten experimental questions.
Students who have practiced on the legacy ACT should expect to see fewer easier questions on the enhanced ACT, particularly in English and math. In math, which is the only section of the test presented in a loose order of difficulty, i.e., from relatively easy to challenging, students should expect to see more challenging questions much sooner, though the loose order of difficulty remains.
In terms of timing and pace, though the ACT has made a big deal about offering students more time per question, most students will feel much of a difference. On average, across the test, students will be afforded about 6-7 seconds more per problem (six seconds more per problem in English and math, 14 seconds more per problem in reading, and seven seconds more in science), but most students are not likely to feel any less time constrained when taking the new ACT.
In summary, the ACT’s new enhanced exam has been introduced in an effort to keep pace with the changing world of standardized testing. The move to add digital testing coupled with making its exam shorter can be seen as the ACT’s effort to evolve its test and to keep up with the SAT. It remains to be seen how students will respond to these changes, how similarly they will score between legacy tests and the new enhanced tests, and if the SAT continues to attract increasing numbers of students to its exam.
Flying Colors will continue to monitor developments in the standardized testing space, and will use this newsletter to keep you apprised. To subscribe to our newsletter, please click here.