ACT to Allow Students to Retake Parts of College Entrance Exam

Beginning next September 2020, students will be allowed to retake sections of the exam if they don’t like their score, the testing body said. In the past, students had to retake the entire exam. Colleges will see all of the student’s scores from a single sitting and any additional scores from retakes that students want to include.

“We’re introducing the flexibility of students to improve on the areas where they didn’t do so well,” said Suzana Delanghe, the ACT’s chief commercial officer. “We believe that this will help a lot of students.”

This will further inflate the scores for sure and make the already complex super score vs non super score method even more complex. Wondering how long before SAT matches this as they compete for how many students take the respective tests.

Starting a discussion for those planning for next year and beyond.

Additional details:

Under the changes, the ACT also will provide universities with an aggregation of a student’s best section scores to form the highest possible composite score. The method, known as superscoring, is already used by some colleges. The ACT said its research suggests that superscoring is more predictive of how students will perform in college courses than other scoring methods. Students will still have to provide scores from a single sitting of testing, which can be their best one, and can provide any retest scores.

The ACT also plans to expand options to take the test online on national test dates, offering students the ability to get their results in two days, rather than about two weeks. The online option, already used by some states and school districts that administer the test to all students, will be available at select test centers before expanding to all.

Seems like a great way for encouraging retakes and making more $.

Really wish schools would advocate and value a one and done mentality.

“Beginning next September 2020, students will be allowed to retake sections of the exam if they don’t like their score,”

…and then they’ll accuse them of cheating if they improve by more than 5 points.

I love this idea and think it is long overdue!

I am the parent of a student who is extremely strong in some sub-sections and significantly less strong in one sub-section. She has taken the ACT twice and is happy with her composite, but one sub-section is noticeably weaker. But if she could just retake her weakest section…yeah, she would probably do it. There’s really no point in her retaking the sections on which she consistently gets a 35 or 36.

I predict that this move will be a further threat to the market share of the SAT vs. the ACT. The two tests have been battling it out in recent years. The ACT surpassed the SAT in 2012, but then the SAT regained the lead in 2018.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/10/23/sat-reclaims-title-most-widely-used-college-admission-test/

I support the announced changes to the ACT and do hope it increases its share relative to SAT.

But, much of the reason the SAT regained the lead is that they offered very low priced contracts to the states that pay for high school juniors to take one standardized test per year…so ACT has some work to do around that if they want to regain share.

We need to end whole charade of selectivity and merit and just give participation trophies in education because clearly academia isn’t something as sacred as holy athletics.

I would never recommend taking the test online. Internationals already do it and it only shows one Math problem at a time. D21 already does the test backwards because the hardest questions come at the end - that would make that impossible.

Taking only one section at a time alters one of the major concepts of the test - it’s easier to get a high score on one part of the test because you are only focused for 35-60 minutes. Staying fresh and focused for 3 hours is a major obstacle.

On the other hand, why should fatigue be a major factor in a test? You either know how to do the work or you don’t.

So in the SAT/ACT battle, ACT steps it up and will be offering the opportunity to take the ACT online (and get faster results) and retake only individual subtests after a student has taken a “full” ACT. Does this mean they have to do the essay section too?Its not clear… http://leadershipblog.act.org/2019/10/act-test-to-provide-new-options.html

In the past, didn’t ACT say the test shouldn’t even be superscored? I was under the impression that endurance was a significant factor underlying speed, which itself is a very significant factor for ACT performance.

If I were a top school, I’d stop allowing for superscores.

I seem to remember them saying that too…telling colleges to not superscore. Similar to when Collegeboard used to say that studying/prepping for the SAT in the hopes of getting a higher score was impossible. ?

I also agree regarding the speed and endurance of the ACT…I wonder if they will ultimately make the content more challenging, whether the test is taken in whole or part?

The test is increasingly irrelevant if everyone gets a perfect score from retaking missed sections. Seriously, other countries do not administer tests that way for a reason.

Seems like all the standardized tests are becoming increasingly irrelevant…and I agree this is another step in that direction. Will be interesting to see what the UC system decides in late winter/spring regarding going test optional.

I’d get rid of Score Choice too. They both encourage excessive test preps and test taking.

Attending prep centers centers, retaking tests again and again, super scoring, a la carte scoring, getting extra time etc are defeating the purpose of standardized testing.

Good hard working students who take test once and only with self prep should get some sort of honorary award to distinguish them from obsessed system gamers.

Would have liked this for my D - who will be a 2020 graduate. That said, I think this will increase a race to no testing or ‘test optional’ which is a mistake since GPAs are so easy to manipulate. I’m a believer in having to show all scores to every college that requires testing - not going to happen.

Wondering how scores on a single section and on a full length test could possibly be standardized. Any psychometric experts, we’d love to hear from you.

Agree, nor do we know if colleges will even accept single section scores.

ACT published some FAQs https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/more-choices-for-the-act-sept-2020/faqs.html

Compass prep has a good summary today that raises a number of good issues too

International here, and that’s inaccurate. You can, in fact, jump to any question you want. It is perfectly feasible to start at the end.