The Enhanced ACT: What Changed in 2025
A shorter test, fewer questions, four answer choices in Math, optional Science, and a three-section Composite.
If you are using an older prep book, stop and check the edition. ACT introduced the enhanced ACT in 2025, and much of the advice written for the old test (five math answer choices, 75 English questions, a required Science section) no longer applies.
The Rollout Timeline
- April 2025: the enhanced ACT began for students testing online on national test dates.
- September 2025: national and international paper testing switched to the enhanced format, and from then on every ACT Composite score is calculated from English, Math and Reading only.
- Spring 2026: the enhanced format reached state and district (school day) testing.
So any ACT you take in 2026 is the enhanced ACT.
What Is Different
- Shorter: ACT says the test has 44 fewer questions overall, with more time per question.
- Science is optional. On national test dates you choose whether to take it. On school day testing, the state or district decides whether Science is given.
- Composite changed: it is now the average of English, Math and Reading. Science is reported separately if you take it, together with a STEM score.
- Four answer choices on every multiple-choice question, including Math, which previously had five.
- Online or paper: you can take the national test in either format.
What Stayed the Same
The 1 to 36 scale, the optional Writing test, and colleges' use of the ACT for admission, scholarships and placement. ACT's research found legacy and enhanced section scores comparable, and Composite scores from before the change are not recalculated.
The Format at a Glance
| Section | Questions (scored) | Time | Time per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 50 (40 scored) | 35 minutes | about 42 seconds |
| Math | 45 (41 scored) | 50 minutes | about 67 seconds |
| Reading | 36 (27 scored) | 40 minutes | about 67 seconds |
| Science (optional) | 40 (34 scored) | 40 minutes | 60 seconds |
| Writing (optional) | 1 essay | 40 minutes |
The three required sections add up to 125 minutes (2 hours 5 minutes). ACT's practice booklet says to allow 2 hours 20 minutes for the three core sections with a 10 to 15 minute break between the second and third tests, or 3 hours with Science. Science, if you take it, comes after Reading; Writing always comes after all the multiple-choice sections.
Unscored Field Test Questions
Each multiple-choice section contains embedded field test items that do not count toward your score: 10 in English, 4 in Math, 9 in Reading and 6 in Science. They are not labelled and their positions change from form to form, so you cannot skip them. Treat every question as scored.
Common mistake: Practising with old full-length tests at their original timing. Legacy tests have more questions per section. If you use them, scale the time to the enhanced pacing (for example, about 42 seconds per English question) or stick to ACT's current free practice tests.
Should You Take Science and Writing?
Both are optional on national test dates. Here is how to decide, based on what each one adds to your score report.
Because neither optional section affects the Composite, the decision comes down to which colleges and programmes you are applying to.
What Science Adds
- A Science score on the 1 to 36 scale.
- A STEM score, calculated from Math and Science. Without Science, no STEM score is reported.
- Roughly 40 more minutes of testing.
What Writing Adds
- A Writing score from 2 to 12, plus four domain scores.
- An ELA score, which combines English, Reading and Writing, reported only when you take Writing.
- 40 more minutes, after all the multiple-choice sections.
How to Decide
ACT notes that some colleges require or accept Science or Writing scores, so check the admissions testing page of every college on your list. If you are heading toward a STEM major or are unsure, taking Science is the safer choice: it never lowers your Composite.
Exam tip: If you test on a school day, you may not get to choose: the state or district decides whether Science and Writing are given. Check with your school counsellor before you plan your preparation.
English
You act as an editor: questions sit beside passages and ask you to fix grammar, punctuation, word choice and organisation.
English is the fastest-paced section on the ACT. You read several essays written specifically for the test, with questions placed alongside the text rather than after it. Some questions target an underlined or highlighted portion and offer alternatives; many include NO CHANGE as a choice. Others, marked by a boxed number or an asterisk in brackets, ask about a paragraph or the passage as a whole.
Reporting Categories
- Production of Writing (38 to 43%): topic development (the purpose of a sentence, whether a passage met its goal, whether material is relevant) and organisation, unity and cohesion (logical order, transitions, introductions and conclusions).
- Knowledge of Language (18 to 23%): precise, concise word choice and consistent style and tone.
- Conventions of Standard English (38 to 43%): sentence structure and formation, punctuation, and usage.
A Four-Step Routine for Each Question
- Read to the end of the sentence before answering, so you have full context.
- Spot what changes across the answer choices (a comma, a verb tense, a word). That tells you what is being tested.
- Eliminate choices with errors, being careful not to pick one that fixes one error but creates another.
- Reread the sentence with your choice in place.
High-Frequency Rules
- Two independent clauses need a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus FANBOYS conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
- Nonessential information is set off by a matching pair of commas, dashes or parentheses; essential information takes no commas.
- Apostrophes: its (possessive) versus it's (it is); plural possessives such as the students' notes.
- Subjects and verbs must agree even when a long phrase separates them.
- When all choices are grammatically correct, the shortest clear one is usually best. Redundancy (for example, "annual yearly report") is a Knowledge of Language error.
Exam tip: Watch for questions that ask which choice is NOT or LEAST acceptable. Three of the options work; you are looking for the one that breaks the sentence. Test each option in the sentence rather than looking for the best one.
Common mistake: Avoiding NO CHANGE because it feels like a trick. NO CHANGE is correct whenever the original text is already the best version. Judge it on its merits like any other choice.
Math
45 four-choice questions on math through the start of grade 12, with a permitted calculator allowed.
ACT Math covers the math students typically learn in courses taken up to the beginning of grade 12. ACT says you need basic formulas and computational skills, but not recall of complex formulas or extensive computation. Every question now has four answer choices. You may use a calculator that meets the ACT calculator policy, though ACT says every problem can be solved without one.
Reporting Categories
| Category | Approximate share | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Preparing for Higher Math | 80% | The five subcategories below |
| Number and Quantity | 10 to 12% | Real and complex numbers, integer and rational exponents, vectors and matrices |
| Algebra | 17 to 20% | Linear, polynomial, radical and exponential relationships; systems, including simple matrix equations |
| Functions | 17 to 20% | Notation, linear, radical, piecewise, polynomial, exponential and logarithmic functions; transformations and graph features |
| Geometry | 17 to 20% | Congruence and similarity, surface area and volume, triangles and circles, trigonometric ratios, conic sections |
| Statistics and Probability | 12 to 15% | Centre and spread, data collection, bivariate data, probability |
| Integrating Essential Skills | 20% | Rates and percentages, proportional relationships, area and volume, average and median, multi-step non-routine problems |
A separate Modeling category counts every question that involves building or interpreting a model; those questions are also counted in the categories above.
Complex numbers, matrices, logarithms and conic sections are listed in the categories above; review them, because many students have not seen them recently.
Exam tip: ACT's own advice: an answer choice is often an intermediate result, not the final answer. Before you bubble or click, check that your number answers the exact question (the perimeter, not the side; the total, not the increase).
Common mistake: Relying on backsolving for everything. ACT notes that working backwards from all four choices can take a lot of time. Backsolve only when the algebra is genuinely harder than testing two or three values.
Exam prediction: This topic frequently appears on the ACT exam. See our full ACT predictions
Reading
Close reading of long and paired passages at first-year college level, with one passage including a graph or table.
The Reading section is made up of several parts. Some contain one long prose passage; others contain two shorter passages, with some questions asking about both. Each passage has a heading naming the author and source, sometimes with useful background. One passage may include a graph, figure or table, with questions that ask you to interpret it or combine it with the text. ACT does not test outside facts or isolated vocabulary.
Reporting Categories
- Key Ideas and Details (44 to 52%): central ideas and themes, summaries, inferences, and sequential, comparative and cause-effect relationships.
- Craft and Structure (26 to 33%): word and phrase meaning in context, word choice, text structure, author's purpose and perspective, and characters' points of view.
- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (19 to 26%): authors' claims, fact versus opinion, connecting related texts, and evaluating arguments and evidence.
Reading Strategy That Matches the Section
- Read actively and briefly note each paragraph's job (introduces a problem, gives a counterexample, shifts to the narrator's memory). ACT itself recommends taking notes on important ideas.
- For paired passages, answer the questions on the first passage, then the second, then the questions on both.
- Prove every answer with a line in the text. If you cannot point to support, the answer is probably too extreme or off-topic.
- Pace by passage, not by question. With 40 minutes total, set a time budget for each passage and move on when it is used up, flagging anything unresolved.
Exam tip: Reading has the highest share of unscored field test items (9 of 36). You cannot identify them, but it does mean that one confusing question is less likely to matter than you fear. Make your best guess and keep moving.
Common mistake: Choosing answers that use the passage's exact words. Wrong choices often reuse vocabulary from the text while changing the meaning. The right answer usually paraphrases.
Science and Writing (Optional)
Science tests data interpretation and experimental reasoning, not memorised facts. Writing is one argumentative essay.
Science: A Reasoning Test with Science Content
The Science section presents several scientific scenarios drawn from biology, chemistry, Earth and space sciences, and physics, each followed by multiple-choice questions. You do not need advanced knowledge, but introductory course knowledge helps on some questions. Calculators are not permitted in Science.
Information appears in three formats:
- Data Representation (26 to 32%): graphs and tables; spot trends, interpolate and extrapolate.
- Research Summaries (50 to 56%): one or more related experiments; questions on design and results.
- Conflicting Viewpoints (18 to 21%): two or more explanations of the same phenomenon that disagree.
The reporting categories are Interpretation of Data (38 to 50%), Scientific Investigation (18 to 32%) and Evaluation of Scientific Arguments and Models with Evidence (24 to 38%).
Because Research Summaries make up about half the section, know your experimental design vocabulary cold: independent variable (what the researcher changes), dependent variable (what is measured), controlled variables (held constant) and control group. For Conflicting Viewpoints, write a few words summarising each viewpoint before answering.
Writing: One Essay, Three Perspectives
You get one prompt describing a complex issue and three perspectives on it. Your essay must develop your own perspective and analyse its relationship with at least one of the others. You may adopt a given perspective or create your own; your position does not affect your score. Optional planning questions help you prepare and are not scored.
The essay is scored against a rubric from 1 to 6 in each of four domains: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. Each domain score is reported from 2 to 12 (ACT's practice guide doubles the rubric score), and your Writing score (2 to 12) is the rounded average of the four domain scores. The Writing score does not affect your Composite.
Exam tip: In Science, read the question first and go straight to the figure it names. Many Data Representation questions can be answered from a single table without reading the introductory paragraph in detail.
Common mistake: In the essay, summarising all three perspectives without arguing. The task requires you to develop your own perspective and analyse how it relates to the others. A balanced summary with no position will not score well in Ideas and Analysis.
How the ACT Is Scored
Raw scores convert to 1 to 36 scale scores; the Composite averages three of them. Plus STEM, ELA and superscoring.
From Raw Score to Scale Score
Your raw score in each section is simply the number of scored questions you answered correctly: up to 40 in English, 41 in Math, 27 in Reading and 34 in Science. There is no penalty for guessing, so answer every question. Raw scores are converted to a scale score from 1 to 36 for each section, which adjusts for small difficulty differences between test forms. A Math scale score of 26 means the same thing on every form.
The Composite
Add your English, Math and Reading scale scores, divide by 3, and round to the nearest whole number (one-half rounds up). Science is not included, even if you take it.
Other Scores on Your Report
- STEM score: from Math and Science, reported only if you take Science.
- ELA score: from English, Reading and Writing, reported only if you take Writing.
- Reporting category scores: how you did in each category listed in this guide, useful for targeting study.
Superscoring
If you have taken the ACT more than once since September 2016, ACT automatically calculates a superscore: your best English, Math and Reading scores from any test dates, averaged into a Superscore Composite. Science is not part of the Superscore Composite, though your highest Science and STEM scores are still shown. The superscore combines legacy and enhanced test results. Whether a college uses superscores is that college's decision, so check its admissions policy.
Reading a Conversion Table
In ACT's 2025/2026 Preparing for the ACT practice booklet, the top of each scale is tight: 39 correct out of 40 in English converts to 35, but 37 correct already drops to 33. Exact conversions vary by form, which is why ACT uses scale scores. The practical lesson is that near the top of the scale, every careless error costs more than one point.
Exam tip: Because the Composite rounds, a single scale-score point in one section can move your Composite. A sum of 83 rounds to 28 (27.67), while 82 gives 27 (27.33). Know your sum, and target the section where one more point is cheapest to earn.
Study Plan and Test-Day Strategy
How to use ACT's four free practice tests, and the pacing habits ACT itself recommends.
Use the Official Practice Tests Deliberately
ACT offers four free full-length practice tests, each in a digital version (timed and untimed, with scoring and diagnostics) and a downloadable paper booklet with a scoring key and conversion tables. Choose the version that matches how you will test on the day. One caution: online practice sections must be completed in one sitting, and closing the page erases your responses.
- Week 1: Practice Test 1 under real timing, as a baseline. Score it by reporting category.
- Weeks 2 to 4: content review aimed at your lowest categories. Use ACT's practice questions by section for targeted sets.
- Week 5: Practice Test 2, then a full error review.
- Weeks 6 to 7: pacing work. Do single timed sections, especially English, where you have about 42 seconds per question.
- Week 8: Practice Tests 3 and 4 a few days apart, as dress rehearsals.
Pacing Habits ACT Recommends
- Answer the easy questions first, guess and flag the hard ones, and return if time remains.
- Use elimination on difficult questions by comparing how the choices differ.
- On practice tests, set your timer five minutes short so you get used to the five-minute warning.
- Review your work if you finish early, because once time is called on a section you cannot return to it.
Exam tip: Mark every unanswered question with a guess before time is called. With four choices and no penalty, a blank is a guaranteed zero while a guess is worth trying.
Common mistake: Spending your final week learning new topics. Use the last week for timed practice and reviewing your error log. Pacing and careless errors are where most late gains come from.
ACT Practice Quiz
8 original ACT-style questions across all sections. Select an answer to see why every choice is right or wrong.
ACT Practice Quiz
Original questions written in the style of the enhanced ACT, with four choices each. They are not official ACT questions. As on the ACT, odd questions use A to D and even questions use F to J.
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
Practise on a predicted ACT paper
Every predicted paper follows the real format, with the answers and the mark scheme. Free with an account.
Open the predicted papersSources
Every fact in this guide comes from the exam board's own pages: