Understanding the ACT Enhancements Starting April 2025: Key Changes in Reading and English Sections
Beginning in April 2025, some changes will be introduced to the ACT exam taken online in the United States. ACT stated that the updated format is shorter, and lets students choose whether to include the science section. Apart from this flexibility in the science section, what about the Reading and English section that (used to be) notorious for its long passages? At TheHagwon.com, we have an ACT expert who has taught ACT for over 15+ years and have the tests evolve. These are his insights and forecasts on what is expected to change in the NEW ACT.
First, let’s take a look into the changes in the question types.
Here are our insights and forecasts for ACT English.
There are no changes in question types. Therefore, there is no reason to think that the existing form of the English questions will change.
The distribution of questions has changed as there are more “Production of Writing” & “Knowledge of Language” questions but less “Conventions of Standard English” questions.
In other words, there will likely be less questions of these types: punctuation, subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement
What about the “field test, embedded” questions in the NEW ACT English? Think of these questions as the ‘dummy’ questions on other standardized exams. It’s just worded differently. The 10 experimental questions that are randomly embedded into the exam will not count in the final English score. So how can you differentiate a field test, embedded dummy Q from the Qs that will actually count toward the score? The key is to notice and sense the field test Qs and skip them so you can allocate more time to the questions that will actually count in the final score.
They might test students on more difficult grammatical concepts not previously seen in an ACT exam. Example would be choosing between a “simple present verb” vs. “present perfect verb”.
An embedded “Production of Writing” question might ask students to look at an entire passage (instead of simply a paragraph or 2-3 sentences) to pick an answer that better introduces or concludes a passage.
The field test, embedded question can also take a form reminiscent of the research question on the Digital SAT RW section.
Here are our insights and forecasts for ACT Reading.
There are no changes to the existing question types in terms of distribution
Reduction of “Key ideas and details” questions and an increase in “Craft and structure” & “Integration of knowledge and ideas” questions
This is likely due to the shortening of the passage length that will probably occur on the new version
Then, what should students look out for in the NEW ACT?
The form of passages is expected to change. It is likely that the passages will be shorter, in general (maybe not as short as the DSAT passages) but enough to extract 5-6 questions out of.
ACT will probably keep these passage types: “Prose Fiction”, “Social Science”, and “Humanities”
There is a possibility the “Natural Science” passage will be removed OR sent to ACT science.
We expect the 9 “Field test, embedded” questions might relate to a separate vocabulary exercise (analogies, contextual reading) OR maybe relate to an unseen passage type such as poetry, primary source, both of which have been used in other standardized exams.
Did these insights help?
Check out our previous post on comparison of Old vs. New ACT in https://www.thehagwon.com/resource/library/20
Also, TheHagwon offers free full-length online ACT testing experience if you create an account with us. If you want to see if the ACT is the right test for you if you’re hesitant about signing up, give our free tests a try!
Resources for the NEW ACT:
Dates and deadlines: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration/test-dates.html
ACT Enhancements FAQ:
https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-changes/enhancements.html#faq