Changes coming to ACT exam, including the science portion being made optional

(CNN) — Major changes are coming to the ACT college admissions exam in the spring, the CEO of ACT announced Monday.

The exam will be evolving to “meet the challenges students and educators face” – and that will include shortening the core test and making the science section optional, chief executive Janet Godwin said in a post on the non-profit’s website.

The changes will begin with national online tests in spring 2025 and be rolled out for school-day testing in spring 2026, Godwin said in the post.

The decision to alter the ACT follows changes made to the SAT earlier this year by the College Board, the non-profit organization that develops and administers that test. The SAT was shortened by a third and went fully digital.

Science is being removed from the ACT’s core sections, leaving English, reading and math as the portions that will result in a college-reportable composite score ranging from 1 to 36, Godwin wrote. The science section, like the ACT’s writing section already was, will be optional.

“This means students can choose to take the ACT, the ACT plus science, the ACT plus writing, or the ACT plus science and writing,” Godwin wrote. “With this flexibility, students can focus on their strengths and showcase their abilities in the best possible way.”

Students who choose to take the science section will receive a standalone score for that section in addition to a STEM score that combines the math and science sections. Similarly, the optional writing section already yielded its own score.

The core ACT exam will be significantly shorter, down from about three hours to two hours, Godwin wrote.

“To achieve this, the test will include shorter passages on the reading and English sections and fewer questions in each section – 44 fewer questions in all – allowing students more time to answer each question thoughtfully,” Godwin wrote.

“This change is designed to make the testing experience more manageable for students, enabling them to perform at their best without the fatigue that often accompanies longer exams,” she said.

The cost of the exam will also go down, Godwin told CNN in an email.

Approximately 60% of students who graduated in 2023 took the ACT exam at least once, according to the organization.

Last fall, the non-profit reported students’ average scores had dropped for a sixth consecutive year. The class of 2023 had an average composite score of 19.5, down from 19.8 by the 2022 graduating class.

And about 20.8% met all four benchmarks in English, reading, math and science in 2023, down from 22.1% in 2022, the non-profit said. Benchmarks are what the organization considers minimum scores to indicate a student’s high chance of success in first-year college courses.

According to a report from Common App, 43% of college students submitted ACT or SAT scores in 2022, following a movement by colleges to make college entrance exams optional.

However, some schools have reversed course, requiring students to submit their scores again.

“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,” Godwin said in the online post.

This year, the company began offering a digital version of the exam, though students still can opt to take the ACT with paper and pencil. It also launched “Encourage,” which is a free college and career program.

“Through this change we will provide an avenue for students to demonstrate what they know, not how fast they can tell us what they know,” Godwin told CNN in an email.