Standardized Testing: Is the ACT Losing Relevance?

For decades, the battle between the SAT and the ACT was a stalemate. Students picked their poison based on geography or preference for the Science section. However, the landscape of college admissions shifted dramatically in 2024. With the College Board launching the fully digital, adaptive SAT, the ACT is facing an identity crisis. This shift has left students and parents asking a critical question: In an era of shorter, digital exams, does the traditional ACT still hold value?

The Digital SAT Revolution

The most significant factor threatening the ACT’s market share is the rollout of the digital SAT. Launched internationally in 2023 and within the United States in March 2024, this new format is not simply a computer-based version of the old test. It is a fundamental redesign that appeals to the modern student.

The new SAT takes approximately two hours and 14 minutes to complete. Compare this to the ACT, which still clocks in at two hours and 55 minutes (plus an optional 40-minute writing section). For a stressed high school junior, saving an hour of testing time is a massive incentive.

Furthermore, the digital SAT is section-adaptive. This means the difficulty of the second module depends on how well the student performs in the first module. This technology allows the College Board to assess a student’s ability accurately with fewer questions. The ACT currently relies on a linear format, requiring more questions and more speed to generate a valid score.

Participation Trends: The Gap Widens

Recent data highlights the struggle for ACT, Inc. to keep pace with the College Board. For the Class of 2023, the SAT saw approximately 1.9 million test-takers, while the ACT trailed with roughly 1.4 million.

A major driver of this disparity is the “SAT School Day” program. The College Board has secured contracts with numerous states and large districts to administer the test during school hours for free. While the ACT has similar contracts in states like Alabama and Kentucky, the SAT dominates populous coastal regions and has made significant inroads in states like Illinois and Michigan that were once ACT strongholds.

The "Test-Optional" Reversal

One factor keeping the ACT relevant is the sudden reversal of “test-optional” policies at elite universities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every major university stopped requiring scores. However, in early 2024, a wave of prestigious institutions reinstated standardized testing requirements for the 2025 admissions cycle.

Notable institutions requiring scores now include:

  • Harvard University
  • Yale University
  • Dartmouth College
  • Brown University
  • MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
  • UT Austin
  • Caltech

This is good news for the ACT. When colleges require a test score, students often take both exams to see which yields a better percentile. If a student struggles with the tricky wording of the new digital SAT, the straightforward, albeit faster-paced, ACT serves as a vital alternative. The ACT remains the “safety net” for high achievers who do not mesh well with the adaptive digital format.

Is the ACT Staying on Paper?

One of the ACT’s few remaining unique selling points is the option to take the test on paper. While the SAT has completely eliminated physical test booklets, the ACT offers a choice in many districts.

For students who struggle with screen fatigue or prefer to annotate physical reading passages with a pencil, the ACT is now the only option. However, ACT, Inc. is not ignoring the digital trend completely. They have launched a digital version of the ACT at select testing centers.

Unlike the SAT, the digital ACT is currently a static replica of the paper test. It is not adaptive, meaning it contains the same number of questions and takes the same amount of time as the paper version. This lack of innovation makes the digital ACT feel clunky compared to the streamlined experience of the College Board’s “Bluebook” testing app.

Strategic Advantages of the ACT

Despite the SAT’s technological leap, the ACT retains specific advantages for certain types of students. Educational consultants still recommend the ACT for the following candidates:

  • Fast Readers: The ACT is a speed test. Students who can process information quickly often outperform their peers on the ACT Reading section, which is more straightforward than the SAT’s evidence-based reading.
  • Math Traditionalists: The SAT Math section has evolved to include more wordy, logic-based problems and allows a calculator for the entire test. The ACT Math section remains focused on geometry and trigonometry with direct calculation questions.
  • Science Specialists: The ACT is the only test with a dedicated Science section. While this section is essentially “reading comprehension with charts,” students who are comfortable analyzing data tables can boost their composite score here.

The Future of the ACT

To survive, the ACT is attempting to modernize. The organization recently announced a “superscoring” policy that is more generous than in the past. Superscoring allows students to combine their highest section scores across multiple test dates to create a new, higher composite score. While colleges have their own policies on whether they accept superscores, ACT, Inc. now provides an automatically calculated superscore report to make the process easier.

Rumors also circulate regarding a shortened version of the ACT to compete with the two-hour SAT, but no official rollout date or structure has been confirmed for a national launch as of mid-2024. Until they can match the convenience of the digital SAT, the ACT risks becoming a niche product rather than the industry standard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the ACT easier than the digital SAT? Difficulty is subjective. The ACT requires faster processing speed and covers more advanced math concepts (like logarithms and matrices) and science. The Digital SAT allows more time per question but features trickier phrasing and multi-step logic problems.

Do colleges prefer the SAT over the ACT? No. All major US universities accept both scores equally. Admissions officers use concordance tables to compare an ACT score (out of 36) to an SAT score (out of 1600). They do not favor one test over the other.

Can I take the ACT digitally? Yes, in some locations. However, the digital ACT is currently just a computer-based version of the long-form paper test. It does not offer the time-saving adaptive features of the digital SAT.

Will the ACT go away completely? It is unlikely. The ACT still holds state mandates in the Midwest and South. Furthermore, having a competitor to the College Board is healthy for the education sector, preventing a total monopoly on college admissions testing.