ACT Newsroom & Blog: The Enhanced ACT Test: What You Need to Know

Written by ACT | Oct 9, 2025 5:00:00 AM

The college admissions process can feel overwhelming for students — from maintaining good grades and choosing the right extracurricular activities to writing essays, visiting campuses, and taking entrance exams.

As one of the most trusted college entrance tests and an ally to parents, students, educators, and higher ed, we recognize that students may have anxiety about scores and that colleges need to rigorously assess the right skills to find top applicants.

As part of our commitment to provide learners with a positive testing experience while still delivering a fair, accessible, and accurate assessment of skills for college admissions teams, ACT recently announced updates and improvements to the ACT test.

The enhanced ACT has been modernized to provide more flexibility for the test taker, all while maintaining the same high level of accuracy and predictive power of the legacy test.

What’s new and what’s staying the same

We’ve made a few key changes to create a better experience for test-takers without changing the accuracy of what the ACT measures.

What changed?

Shorter Test Time: The test is now 70 minutes shorter, with 44 fewer questions overall. This gives students more time per question and helps reduce test fatigue, while still maintaining the same rigorous assessment material.
Refined Math Section: The math section has four multiple-choice answers instead of five.
Added Flexibility: Students can choose whether to take the science and writing sections for the ACT National test based on their goals and institution requirements. State and district customers can choose whether to include the ACT science and writing sections for their students.

Note: Colleges will determine whether the science or writing sections are mandated based on their program requirements.

What hasn’t changed?

The Score Scale: The ACT score scale will remain 1-36 with no changes to ACT benchmarks or state-specific achievement standards.
Superscoring: Superscoring is still supported and continues to be at the discretion of individual colleges regarding acceptance.
Score Validity: Scores from tests taken before the rollout of the new Composite score will not change, and the ability to predict success in first-year college credit-bearing courses will not change.
Testing Options: Both paper-and-pencil and online tests will continue to be available.

The enhanced ACT and admissions

ACT conducted thorough research before launching the enhanced test to ensure it maintained fairness, validity, rigor, and its ability to predict college success. With ongoing grade inflation and fewer standardized testing requirements in some areas, tests like the ACT are once again serving as key benchmarks in holistic admissions reviews.

Colleges will continue to decide individually whether to accept superscores or only single-sitting composite scores, and whether to require the now-optional Science section.

The rollout timeline

The enhanced ACT is now the standard national test. Here’s a brief overview of the rollout:

A Successful Pilot: The rollout began in Spring 2025 with a successful pilot for students who took the online test during a National Test Day, which received positive feedback from students and test centers.
Full National Test Rollout: The enhanced test – online and paper – was fully rolled out during the September 6 national test administration.
State and District Transition: All state and district test takers will transition to the enhanced test by Spring 2026.

We are here to help

We want you to feel comfortable with the test, whether you’re a parent supporting your child, an educator administering the test or counseling students, or an admissions officer evaluating scores.

If you still have questions regarding the enhanced ACT, we are here to answer them. Higher ed admissions teams can reach out to Kasey.Urquidez@act.org for detailed information about the enhanced ACT and have any questions they may have answered.

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