When writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr observed that the more things change, the more they stay the same, he couldn’t possibly have been thinking of the Enhanced ACT. After all, his famous quote–“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” in its original French–dates back to 1849. But the revised ACT that will be going national in September 2025 bears a strong resemblance to the current (now called the legacy) version.
That said, the enhancements to this popular assessment go deeper than just alterations to tweaks to the numbers of items and time per section. ACT has thoughtfully retained the Reporting Categories that provides subscores for each section, confirming that the next test is built on a strong and familiar foundation. The only real change from a content perspective is the distribution of items in each Reporting Category. ACT recently released a very helpful Comparison of the Legacy and Enhanced ACT® Test document–helpful, that is, if you understand the implications of small content redistributions. Luckily, I know a bit about the ACT!
The first table compares the total number of items and testing time by section for the legacy and enhanced ACT test. We previously unpacked the broad implications of these changes, which ultimately add up to a shorter testing experience with options for either paper or digital testing.
ENGLISH
The comparison of reporting category items in the English section (fully explained here) reveals the first major change to test content distributions. While Conventions of Standard English items, which test the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics, currently represent more that 50% of the English section, they are being scaled back to roughly 40%. Test takers will see a higher percentage of both Production of Writing (topic development and organization, unity, and cohesion) and Knowledge of Language (word choice, style and tone). Note that the Knowledge of Language category includes the most specific discrete vocabulary questions found on the ACT, which suggests the exam may be leaning more in that direction.
Another projected change will be the addition of an argumentative essay, which may be the reason for more POW and KLA items.
MATH
Another significant shift in emphasis can be found in the comparison of Math reporting category items (fully explained here). Even though ACT is cutting the number of total items down from 60 to 45, the number of Preparing for Higher Math items in each section remains basically the same. That means the big cuts are in Integrating Essential Skills items–the ones that test mastery of concepts typically learned before 8th grade. While IES items include what might be considered basic or foundational concepts, they have always been designed to assess complex thinking (Depth of Knowledge levels 2 and 3). Is ACT moving away from this style of complex, wordy problems, or will we see more DOK 2 and 3 items assessing higher math? Note that Modeling items setting problems in real world contexts will still represent approximately 20% of all items. However, ACT has signaled that they want to cut down on items requiring a longer time to read.
Interestingly, as ACT reduces the number of IES items, they also plan to reduce the number of items aligned with advanced topics. Where exactly will the ACT Math sweet spot be?
READING
The comparison of Reading reporting category items (fully explained here) shows a very stable distribution of content. Test takers may see one more question testing understanding of persuasive writing and argumentation or one fewer Key Ideas and Details item than they did on the legacy ACT, but the reading skill percentages are basically the same. As a bonus, expect shorter passages!
SCIENCE
The Science reporting category items (fully explained here) also seem consistent with the established content distribution. ACT Science will remain a test of graphical literacy, science reasoning, and experimental design. The primary changes to the Science section–besides becoming optional, of course–will be the addition of an engineering and design passage and the inclusion of more items requiring scientific background knowledge. The legacy Science test expects a minimum of two years of high school science–typically one year of biology and one year of physical science and/or Earth science–but doesn’t really require much discrete science knowledge. Will the enhanced ACT put more science in the Science section? Stay tuned…
Mike Bergin