Last week, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced a major change ahead of this fall’s selective enrollment admissions cycle: students will no longer take the High School Admissions Test (HSAT) and will instead be taking the PreACT 9 Secure, which is a shortened version of the ACT. Every CPS 8th grader will take this test, digitally, in the fall (October 7th 2026), and non-CPS students looking to apply for selective enrollment may elect to take the test (on a weekend).
Why the change? Simply put, the HSAT did not provide a very comprehensive picture of a student’s strengths and challenges for administrators, (only assessing a student’s reading comprehension and mathematical abilities, for instance) and it was notoriously difficult to find out much about the test itself, which made preparation unnecessarily challenging for students. Switching to the PreACT, which tests English, Math, Reading, and Science skills, will give CPS “meaningful information on the entering 9th grade class to support course placement and other programming decisions for students as they begin their high school journeys.”
Although some may bemoan the longer test form (2.5 hours compared to the 1-hour-long HSAT) ultimately, this is a huge win for students because they will now know exactly what the test will look like. Below are the specifications of the PreACT 9 Secure.
| Timing | # of Items | Content | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 35 minutes | 5-6 passages (2 short, 2 long scored) 44 items (33 scored, 11 field test) | 11-13 items Production of Writing 4-6 items Knowledge of Language 14-16 items Conventions of Standard English |
| Math | 45 minutes | 34 items (30 scored, 4 field test) | 3-4 items Number and Quantity 5-7 items Algebra 5-7 items Functions 3-4 items Geometry 3-4 items Statistics and Probability 7 items Integrating Essential Skills No Algebra II content |
| Reading | 40 minutes | 4 passages (3 scored) 33 items (25 scored, 8 field test) | 12-14 items Key Ideas and Details 7-9 items Craft and Structure 3-5 items Integration of Knowledge and Ideas |
| Science | 35 minutes | 5 passages (4 scored) 32 items (26 scored, 6 field test) | Scored passages include 2 data representation, 1 research summary, and 1 conflicting viewpoints 1-4 background knowledge items |
Want more information about Field Test Items? Check out our blog on the topic.
The fact that the PreACT is aligned to ACT’s curriculum means that students will now know what to study to prepare for this important test and will be able to take advantage of the wealth of ACT support out there, like working with Academic Approach, who has 25 years of experience preparing students for the ACT, an extensive collection of ACT curriculum and practice materials, and score reporting that surpasses that of ACT. Unlike other companies, Academic Approach never wasted time trying to “hack” the HSAT, a purposefully non-transparent exam, and instead, invested our resources in further developing our skills-based approach to test prep and solidifying ourselves as an industry leader in ACT preparation.
This means we are perfectly poised to be your go-to source for all PreACT 9 instruction. Not only can we start preparing your student for the PreACT today, but we can do so while simultaneously preparing them for the ACT. Even better, we can now map out an in-depth, carefully tailored tutoring program (purposefully staggering key skills and increasing rigor over the years) that can support a student from 7th to 12th grade, through high school and college admissions!
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Instructionally speaking, the fact that students will now be concurrently starting their ACT preparation journeys by preparing for their selective enrollment exam is by far the most exciting part about CPS adopting the PreACT. Twenty-five years of internal data support the fact that the earlier students can start engaging with ACT preparation, the better the results.
CPS acknowledged this as a factor in their decision, stating, that because the PreACT is aligned to the ACT it “will help students prepare for success in taking this exam later in their high school journey.” Now, rather than wasting time preparing for a test that never provided families with a clear view of the material covered, students are essentially killing two birds with one stone by preparing for the PreACT.
That said, there are still some things we don’t yet know about how CPS plans to utilize the PreACT. We don’t know much yet about how scoring will be used in the admissions process. The PreACT 9 is scored on the same scale as the ACT (with a maximum score of 32). It’s possible that CPS will use the same percentile information that they have used previously (though we don’t know how different subjects will factor in or if cutoff scores will change)
- You can see how they incorporated percentile data from the previous test here
- Last year’s percentile ranks from the PreACT 9 Secure are here
As we continue to learn more, we will keep you updated!
In the meantime, contact us to set your student up with a practice PreACT so they can get a sense for the test and see how they are performing!
For more information about the PreACT itself:
- ACT’s test guide can be found here.
- Information about the PreACT suite of assessments can be found here. Reminder that the test that will be used for selective enrollment admission is the PreACT 9 Secure.
Contact us today to ensure that your student achieves their high school admissions goals!