Students Take Revised ACT Test

The ACT tests administered Saturday to aspiring college students have undergone their first overhaul since the American College Testing Program began in 1959.

“There is more of an emphasis than ever on the ability of a student to think and apply and problem-solve with the new test rather than just to recall some fact,” ACT President Richard Ferguson said. He said more than 300,000 students had registered to take the test nationwide. Most colleges in 28 states weigh the ACT results in their application procedures.

The new ACT test includes 215 questions and takes two hours and 55 minutes to complete. The old test had 219 questions.

The English section includes questions that measure a student’s awareness of decisions that a person makes when writing, including style and audience.

The range of questions has increased in the math section to include easier and more difficult questions and has been lengthened by 10 questions and 10 minutes. The new reading section includes fiction and readings in the humanities.

Knowledge-of-facts items have been dropped from the Science Reasoning section, which focuses on the process of science. It still includes material from science areas covered in high school.

Overall scoring has changed so that a 15 composite score last year might be comparable to an 18 composite this year, officials said. The range is from 1 to 36.