If you were going to take the ACT right now—before the makeover—you would take the test in four multiple-choice sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. You'd be required to complete all four of these sections because your composite score would average your score of all four parts. And if you wanted to complete the essay (also known as the Writing section), that would be optional.

Well, big change #1 is that soon the Science section will no longer be required, either.

So beginning as early as April of 2025, the new format of the ACT will only require a core of three sections: English, Math, and Reading. So you would be required to do those three, but you will only take Writing and/or Science if you want to complete one or both of them and have specifically signed up for them.

Your composite score (out of 36) will no longer take into account how you did on Science questions. The only three sections that count towards your composite score will be English, Math, and Reading. If you opt to take the soon-to-be-optional Science or Writing sections, you will receive separate score reports for those sections.

44 fewer questions total, to be specific. In terms of the core three sections that are going to matter in the new iteration of the test—English, Math, and Reading—the questions like in three sections will give you:

• 50 questions for English

• 45 for Math

• 36 for Reading

• 131 questions total

So unless you’re taking the optional Science section, the new test will be slimming down from 175 to 131 multiple-choice questions—a difference of 44 Qs!

The fourth big change with the new format of the ACT is that your total testing time is going to be reduced. And that’s not just true for those people who decide to opt out of the Science section, thus cutting down the total number of sections you sit for.

That’s right: the period of time it takes to complete each of the remaining required sections—English, Math, and Reading—will also be shorter:

• If you take three sections only, you’ll be taking a two-hour test—literally 120 minutes on the dot—if you're a regular-time test taker.

• If you add on the optional Science section, your test will be two hours 40 minutes.

• If you add Writing (but not Science), it would also be two hours 40 minutes.

• And if you decide to sign up for BOTH of the optional sections—the main test plus Science plus the essay—then that would be 3 hours 20 minutes for a regular time test taker.

The fifth change of the new format of the ACT is that the test will no longer be as fast-paced. As in, you’ll get more time to answer each question.

That’s because the ACT did not reduce the # of questions and the time allotment perfectly in proportion. Between reducing the total time you’re in your seat and reducing the number of questions you have to answer, here’s how it breaks down:

• Current ACT (with four required sections): 215 questions in 175 minutes

• Roughly 48.8 seconds per question.

• New ACT, if you only do the three required sections: 131 questions in 120 minutes,

• Roughly 55 seconds per question.

So in 2025-26 you’ll be shifting your pace from a little under 49 seconds per question to 55 seconds per question—a difference of a little over six seconds per question!

In addition to the sections themselves being shorter time-wise and containing fewer questions, those two changes will, in turn, affect some sections more than others. The sections that will be affected most dramatically by the slower timing of the new ACT are those that include passages—the English and Reading sections. Specifically, the actual passages themselves will be shorter in both sections.

We don't know yet exactly how the new version of the test will distribute passages and questions across these two sections. As a reminder, here’s how it works on today’s test:

• The English section currently comprises five passages each with 15 questions apiece.

• The Reading section currently comprises four passages each with 10 questions apiece.

When you currently take the ACT, about half the time, you end up being given a fifth section (the "experimental section").

Well, that’s because the ACT wants to test out potential future test questions to assess their difficulty level—before the exam actually incorporates those questions and start counting them towards real scores.

The ACT finally came to terms with test-takers’ tendency to slack on the experimental section, and realized they’re not going to get accurate data on those questions if they’re all lumped into one section that everyone knows doesn’t count towards their actual score.

So instead, what the new ACT will do is plant experimental questions inside the actual sections of the test. In other words, the English section—which, if you’ll recall from above, will soon only have 50 questions—will have some real questions and some “tester” questions among those 50. We don't know exactly how many will be counted towards your 36 points and how many will be experimental, but we know that SOME of them will go uncounted. That means you now have to answer ALL of the questions you come across as if your life depended on it because you don't know which ones are going to count towards your composite score and which ones aren't.