Much like your college-bound student, the ACT is embarking on a major life change. After receiving repeated feedback about the test’s length and testers’ discomfort with the Science section, the ACT has responded with a host of changes––including making the Science section optional.
This new version of the ACT, called the Enhanced ACT, was first rolled out online this April and will apply to paper tests as well this September. This change may raise quite a few questions: Is it better to take the Science section or skip it? How will the optional section affect my student’s overall score? To start, let’s break down the scoring system.
- Your student’s Enhanced ACT composite score (1-36) will be calculated as a rounded average of their English, Math and Reading section scores.
- When a student opts into the Science section, that score will be reported separately. It will have no bearing on their composite score. Note that Science scores cannot be cancelled on their own––your student would have to cancel the entire score report for that test.
- Similarly, if a student opts into the optional Writing (Essay) section, they will receive that score separately. It will have no bearing on their composite score.
- When applying to a school that allows superscoring, a student’s superscore can be calculated based on section scores from the Enhanced ACT and the previous ACT (called ACT Classic). However, if they take an ACT after September 2025, remember that their superscore will be based on their English, Reading and Math scores only.
So, what does this mean for your student? With a composite score based on only three sections, two of them being language arts subjects, students with stronger test performance in English and Reading can expect to see that more highlighted in their composite ACT score than before. For students who tend to do better in Math and Science, opting in to the Science section can allow them to showcase their strengths to universities.
Your student should consider taking the Science section if…
- They are planning on majoring or taking courses in a STEM field. (This is ACT’s recommendation).
- They score well on the Science section of ACT practice tests. Although there is often a correlation between students who do well in their Science classes at school and those that score high on the ACT Science section, it is not a given. The Science section is not an assessment of science knowledge but rather an assessment of how a student works with scientific data, graphics, experiments, and reaches conclusions.
- Your student has strategized and practiced for this section or simply wants to take it. Students have the potential to see growth in the Science section by using the right strategies, such as Reading Prioritization (a questions-first, keyword-focused approach to efficiently and accurately tackle this section). Academic Approach’s one-on-one tutoring is extremely helpful in preparing students for the Science section, so if your student does want to take the test, be sure to reach out to us.
When deciding whether or not your student should take the Science section, it is important to first research the admission requirements and recommendations of any college or university your student wants to apply to. Currently, only a few schools have stated if they will require the Science section or disregard any submitted Science scores, but we anticipate more schools will start to clarify their stance on this issue in the coming months. Academic Approach will continue to keep you updated, but it is good practice to bookmark and frequently check the admissions requirements pages of any schools your student has their eye on.
Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing when schools will clarify their ACT Science policies, so some students may want to proceed with taking the Science test just to be safe. If your student is planning to take the ACT more than once, one option could be to plan to take the Science section one time and opt out the other time.
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However, it is important to remember that unless a school explicitly states they are requiring applicants to submit ACT Science scores, the ACT Science section is optional. Focusing on English, Mathematics, and Reading skills is the top priority, so if your student doesn’t have very long to prepare for the ACT or if they have a long way to go to raise their score, it might be helpful to decide early on to not take the Science section at all, in order to focus time and energy on English, Math, and Reading. Ultimately, a high composite ACT score will matter more than a lower overall composite score with a high Science section.
The decision of whether to opt in to the ACT Science section will depend on your individual student’s strengths, long-term goals, planned test dates, and target schools. Feel free to call us if you’d like some additional guidance or would like to set up ACT tutoring.
