My niece took the computer based ACT and had major problems in the mouse functioning on the Science sections. One of her friends reported that her centre was changed at the last moment and she was not able to take the test. Requesting students to share their experiences on day one and two of the new computer based ACT and possibly what can be done to offset the damage caused
Coming from personal experience as a student that takes the ACT on paper. The online version of the ACT is a horrible idea. Firstly, there are countless problems that can arise such as: computer failure, power outages, broken mouse, and slow internet. Let’s not even mention the large number of cheaters that will just Google all the answers. I have never heard of the online ACT but in my opinion, it is a risky and delicate procedure.
If you seek improvement, I would say test your internet, mouse capabilities, and speed of our browser to ensure there aren’t any confounding factors in your ACT test. Beyond that, there isnt much to be done as the online version is largely experimental.
My child was not given a mouse and it was harder to click the answers without a mouse. Also, the load time was long. In paper format the students can easily skip questions and come back but when my child tried to do that the time was up before the upload. In paper test he could have easily filled in the scantrons with guesses but in the computer based format he couldn’t.
I took the Sept 8 ACT from India, so you may want to take my experience with a grain of salt if you’re in USA.
But as far as I would recommend, DON’T do it. It worked well up until the Essay part. In fact, I completed the Essay, 40 minutes were over, and it told me to ‘press OK’ to submit my scores. I did so, and it immediately showed a ‘Error request timed out screen’. This happened to several other people in the room, and the proctors eventually sorted it out. Apparently the main server had stopped a few minutes before my forty mins were up, so once they restarted it I was shown my essay screen again, with around 1 and a half paragraphs missing (which I had wrote after the server malfunctioned and so hadn’t been autosaved), and around 3.5 minutes left on the clock. So I decided to make the best of a bad situation and re write them from memory. Except that 30 seconds in, the screen froze. But the timer didn’t stop. The proctor came over and somehow unfroze it, by which time I only had 30 seconds left, and an entire paragraph that I had previously written, missing. I managed to add in a a five word conclusion before the timer ended. Proctors did nothing, we contacted the ACT office by phone, and now have registered a complaint. In any case I do not have another shot since I’m applying EA and the earliest deadline is October 15.
So, I’m going to have to just live with it.
This happened to me and some others in my centre during the Essay. The rest was smooth as can be. But someone else may have problems with other parts of the test, so on the whole it’s probably better to stay away from it, at least until a few test dates have passed and ACT has found better ways to deal with potential problems.