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With the first official scales and practice tests for the redesigned ACT now available since the April launch, we wanted to share some important insights about how the test changes are playing out in practice. After analyzing the published scales as well as having our own tutors take the new test, we've discovered something surprising: the changes make the ACT significantly more attractive for many students, and for reasons beyond what was initially anticipated.

The biggest takeaway? The new ACT scales remain remarkably stable and generous despite predictions they would become harsher to compensate for an "easier" test.  Rising juniors should absolutely have the new ACT on their radar alongside the SAT for diagnostics, with strong evidence pointing toward ACT advantages for most students with similar starting scores. For students already committed to the ACT, they’re in good shape with the new format—the changes likely work in their favor. For those still deciding between tests, the ACT landscape has shifted in ways that create new opportunities, though the SAT can still be the stronger test for certain student profiles.

Read on below for our analysis of why the new ACT defied expectations, and what this means for your testing strategy!

The Scale Surprise: Why the New ACT Remains More Generous Than Predicted

When the ACT announced its planned changes—more time per question, shorter test length, and the Science section now optional—the testing community expected harsh scoring adjustments to compensate for an "easier" test. That hasn't happened, and the reasons why reveal important insights about the test's true difficulty. Our detailed analysis of the published scales reveals that the percentage accuracy needed for top scores remains virtually identical to the original ACT. For example:

• English: Students need about 95-97% accuracy for a 35 on both versions, despite the addition of explicit prompts for certain question types.
• Math: With more time per question but slightly more complex problems, the accuracy requirements stay consistent when adjusted for fewer questions.
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• Reading: Even with significant timing relief, students still need similar accuracy levels—the added time helps, but doesn't fundamentally change the cognitive demands.

The percentage requirements make sense when you consider that fewer questions mean each question carries more weight, , but the test's overall difficulty hasn't changed as much as anticipated. Here's why:

• English improvements are limited. While the ACT added explicit prompts for tone, transitions, and redundancy questions, our analysis shows this provides minimal advantage. Students scoring 28+ were already succeeding on these questions, while students in the 20-25 range still need thorough instruction to master the underlying concepts. The prompts help identify what's being tested, but don't solve the fundamental challenge of processing complex language effectively.
• Math maintains its rigor. Despite more time per question, the problems are more complex and time-consuming, largely balancing out the timing advantage.
• Reading pacing helps selectively. The extra time provides the greatest advantage to strong readers whose primary barrier was finishing in time, but accuracy challenges persist for most students.

In many ways, the most difficult aspects of the ACT have gotten easier. The changes address the three biggest barriers that traditionally made the ACT challenging for certain students:

• Pacing relief: More time per question in every section, most significantly in Reading—often the most time-pressured section.
• Endurance improvement: Nearly an hour shorter without required Science, making the test much more manageable.
• Science section advantage: For most students, removing Science from the composite score calculation is beneficial, as it typically dragged scores downward and required additional test dates to achieve top scores.

Even if ACT scales do become harsher over time (which our analysis suggests is unlikely for the reasons above), the ACT maintains crucial advantages over the SAT:

• Transparent, fair scoring: ACT questions are weighted equally with clear, published scales. A missed question has predictable impact. In contrast, the SAT doesn’t publish its scales and uses a complex algorithm where different questions are worth different amounts—but which ones and how much remain unclear both during and after the test.
• Established stability: The ACT has historically maintained consistent scales, while the SAT's complex Item Response Theory (IRT) creates unpredictable score variations. IRT attempts to predict a student’s skill level based on which questions they miss, not just how many—meaning the system can interpret a careless error as a skill gap, leading to disproportionate score impacts. We’ve seen students miss similar numbers of questions on different SAT tests yet receive significantly different scores, making it harder to predict performance from practice to actual test day.
• Superior practice materials: The new ACT format is nearly identical to the original, meaning the vast bank of official ACT tests remains highly relevant for practice, while third-party SAT materials have struggled to replicate a similar level of difficulty to the official test.

The updated ACT presents several key advantages for rising juniors, who should be taking diagnostic exams as soon as possible. These changes mean the ACT deserves serious consideration even for students who might have been SAT-leaning under the previous format, offering broader accessibility for students who previously struggled with pacing or endurance, maintained score potential with scales that remain generous, and strategic flexibility with the optional Science section.

As always, comprehensive diagnostics for both tests remain the best way to determine the optimal path for each student, and a test redesign can always present some unanticipated challenges in its first year. However, the evidence increasingly points toward the ACT as the more reliable, predictable, and now more accessible option for achieving top scores. We’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest testing developments as they unfold, and we look forward to helping you students achieve their very best!