Changes To ACT Test For Michigan High Schoolers Coming In 2025

I remember being in elementary and middle school preparing for the ACT that I would have to take in my junior year of high school. My classmates and I were told that the skills we were learning from 3rd-10th grade would accurately prepare our brains for one of the most important tests of our lives. Well, they couldn't be more wrong since the state of Michigan switched to the SAT during my sophomore year of high school.

I was wildly unprepared for the extremely long and strenuous exam that would be a part of deciding what my future would look like. With the state switching to the SAT, the ACT became a test that was no longer required but could be beneficial to take. I chose to skip the ACT but those who didn't have benefitted from doing well on the test. Now, there are changes coming to the ACT to acknowledge some of the challenges for test takers.

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The ACT is one of two standardized exams that uses scores to calculate the academic capacity of an individual. Most of the time this test is taken during the junior and/or senior year of a student and is used to bolster their academic resume to boost their chances of admission. Recently there have been some changes regarding the standardized tests and there are more on the way.

A lot of colleges and universities around the country have decided to make tests scores optional for its applicants and some have completely removed them from their admissions criteria. There are prestigious colleges and universities that still require and prefer to see those tests score, but now those tests score may look very different with changes coming in 2025.

The ACT will now be a shorter exam than it has been in the past and the science section will now be optional. The changes were made to address the challenges students and educators must navigate daily but will be applied to the online test in 2025 and the school administered tests in 2026. With the removal of science from the core sections it leaves just reading, English, and math to determine the college-reportable score on the 1-36 range.

This gives students in Michigan four options for taking the ACT and they are as they read below:

• The ACT
• The ACT Plus Science
• The ACT Plus Writing
• The ACT Plus Science and Writing.

If they choose any of the options that include the additional test the students will be given an individual score for those sections that they can choose to report or omit from their college applications. Science test takers will also receive a STEM score that combines their science and math section results.

The core portion of the exam will be shortened from 3 hours to just 2 hours and will have 44 fewer questions overall than before. The best change in this whole equation is the price change as the test will now be cheaper to purchase since it will not be as long as it once was.