What we learned from the first administration of the new digital ACT

Thousands of students from around the United States recently sat for the first official administration of the new, shorter digital ACT. So how did it go? Was it a breeze or more challenging than ever? Here's the scoop on the April digital ACT.

Pre-test logistical issues

Seat shortages have plagued ACT administrations in many regions over the last year and continued to cause problems for the April test as well—especially now that students taking the new exam need both a seat and a testing device. A number of students reported that even though they had signed up for the new digital ACT without the optional science section, they were automatically switched to the paper ACT, which includes science, only days before the exam. Others reported that they were switched from the digital exam to a paper one, and then were later switched back again.

Technical glitches

Test takers generally seem to have been able to complete their digital exams, though delays caused by technical glitches, such as students' laptops not working, the proctor's app repeatedly freezing, or long waits when switching between sections, were frequently reported. Additionally, the zoom-in function was not working on many devices—a problem that students also reported with early administrations of the computer-based ACT first offered internationally in 2018.

Test content

What about the actual test content? There were at least three different versions of the digital exam, so keep in mind that not every student had the same testing experience. However, here's what we found for each subject.

English

Overall, the English section did not present students with any major surprises.

Many students reported that the majority of the questions they saw were rhetorical skills questions testing concepts such as word choice, tone, transition words, and purpose, and that grammar questions were minimal. However, there is evidence that this was not the case for some testers, who saw a more typically grammar-heavy English test.
Most felt that English was easier than usual, even though rhetorical skills questions are generally more difficult to easily and objectively identify as right or wrong than grammar questions.
The English test structure conformed to the structure of the released practice exam: two passages of five questions each and four passages of ten questions each.

Math

Math was by far the section that students found most atypical. Here's what they experienced.

Students reported that the math section on this test felt significantly harder than typical ACT math sections on paper exams.
Questions did not follow the usual progression of easy-medium-hard throughout the section: very difficult questions appeared as early as question 10 and one or two easy questions appeared after question 40.
Unfortunately, some students were unaware that the built-in calculator on the digital ACT is not a Desmos calculator and therefore had not brought their own graphing calculators. They found the online calculator provided somewhat clunky. Students: don't forget to bring your own calculator!
The test included more than the usual number of questions dealing with advanced concepts such as probability, trig, complex numbers, inverse functions, linear regression, vectors, expected value, logarithms, and geometric sequences. While all of these topics have appeared on past papers, most of them have tended to appear only once per test (or not at all).
While students had more time per question on this exam than on the classic paper exam, most still reported having timing issues because there were very few easy questions and a large proportion of difficult questions.
Many students remarked that the questions had unusual setups or unconventional and confusing phrasing. Students did not report seeing any multi-question setups.
A very small number of test takers reported that math seemed easier than usual, which may be due to the different versions of the test that were used.

Reading

There were limited changes to the reading section.

Most students reported that reading felt easier than usual.
The passages did not follow the typical passage order of fiction, social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, and some passage types did not appear at all.
At least one of the passages had been reused from a previous paper ACT.
Passages were only perhaps a sentence or two shorter than classic ACT passages.
Students saw nine questions per passage.

Science

Science was the least commented upon multiple-choice section of the test—perhaps because it was optional, and many students chose not to take it!

Most students felt that this section was fairly easy.
This section did include some questions that required outside knowledge—as is usually the case.
Pacing was still tight for some students.

The takeaway

Given the technical glitches reported, as well as the last-minute switch to the paper exam that some students experienced, we recommend sticking with the paper exam through July. Starting in September, all students sitting for a weekend administration will be taking the new ACT, either in digital or paper format, but until then, take the classic paper exam if you can!

Need more individualized advice?

The recommendations above are general suggestions. If you have specific questions, reach out to our experts here. We’re happy to help in any way we can.

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