The Digital SAT v. The Enhanced ACT
In the spring of 2024, Collegeboard’s SAT went digital, offering a shorter test with even shorter questions and greater access to technology. Students flocked to it, leaving the ACT Company with a shrinking customer base. The ACT Company responded by attempting to shorten their own test while also addressing the common student frustration of not having enough time on their ACT sections.
The Digital SAT's Evolution and the ACT's Response
However the ACT Company didn’t adopt the use of adaptive testing, like the SAT, which changes the question difficulty of the second of two modules in each subject based on how well you do on the first one. Though it is conjecture, I think this made it impossible for the ACT to appreciably shorten their test down from its sturdy 2 hour 55 minute duration to compete with the svelte SAT’s 2 hour 14 minute length.
Changes to ACT Sections and Scoring
Faced with grim options, the ACT was going to have to amputate one of its four sections: English, math, reading, or science. Science was, on average, the least favorite among students. The new “enhanced” ACT will sport one 35 minute English section, one 50 minute math section, and one 40 minute reading section, bringing the test down to 2 hours and 05 minutes. All sections are still scored out of 36, and the composite score is a straight average of these three sections. The science section is now an optional 40 questions to be done in 40 minutes after the reading section and, if taken, is also scored out of 36 with a composite score made with a straight average of the now four sections. There is also another optional 40 minute section, the writing section, which doesn’t contribute to the composite score. Adding on these additional sections will bring the test length to 2 hours 45 minutes and 3 hours 25 minutes respectively.
However, it does appear that there are fewer questions to complete per minute in each ACT section. If you measure how many questions you need to answer in a section per minute of test time, you’ll see that an English section now asks you to answer 50 questions in 35 minutes as opposed to the previous test’s 75 questions in 45 minutes, a 14% reduction in the number of questions answered per minute. Math also sees a 10% reduction in questions per minute, and reading sees a whopping 21% reduction. The optional science section sees a 12.5% decrease in required questions per minute.
Each section will still be scored out of 36 and the student’s composite score will still be a straight average of these (now) three sections, rounded to the nearest whole number. The ACT will remain a paper test, though a digital option is available. You will still be able to superscore, which means to take the best sections across all of your official ACTs to achieve a higher score than the composite score of any one official test.
Superscoring Compatibility
However, there are some compatibility issues if you’ve taken a legacy ACT in 2024 or 2025 and are trying to improve your superscore by taking the enhanced ACT. You will need to take the longer version of the enhanced ACT to include science in order for your superscore to be able to be updated. If you take the no science enhanced ACT, you will not be able to use legacy ACT composite scores to make a better superscore.
Practice Materials: A Major Differentiator
These changes re-invite many classic questions including “Which test should I take?” My least favorite answer to this question is to have the student take one of each test and see on which test they initially score higher. Students should be informed about the biggest differences between the exams and then make an informed decision about which test they’re ready to sacrifice their time for. There are two extremely relevant differences between these tests as of the time of this writing during the summer of 2025.
The number one difference between the digital SAT and the enhanced ACT is the availability of practice materials. A month before launch in March 2024, Collegeboard already had three powerful, free tools to study the digital SAT. Bluebook, the system on which the SAT is administered, included 4 practice tests that could be retaken and rescored. Collegeboard’s partnership with Khan Academy created an interactive visual display of student progress in each question type in each level of difficulty by utilizing colored boxes. Students can also view written lessons, watch video examples done by Sal Khan himself, and receive hints on questions they struggle with. The SAT Question Bank, a repository of more than a thousand official practice questions, allows you to search for which problem type to work on in the desired level of difficulty.
As of the time of this writing, we are approximately one month from the launch of the paper enhanced ACT and there is only one official enhanced ACT available to take, but you have to take it on the ACT website; no paper version is available. Moreover, every year the ACT Company publishes a red paper book of practice tests. This year, none of the tests contained new questions. Instead, this year’s red book contained versions of the previous year’s legacy ACT tests lobotomized to fit the enhanced ACT format. I think this suggests that there may continue to be a lack of good practice ACT material certainly in the fall of 2025 if not the whole school year.
I have found that a typical student improves their score on either the ACT or the SAT fairly reliably for about an eleven or twelve week period. Because the goal for each student is to maximize the score they are capable of getting, they should attempt to study for the test (accompanied with weekly tutorials) for at least two months. In the current environment, there’s just not going to be enough official practice material to withstand that duration unless previously available practice materials can be remixed together. We may only get the official enhanced ACT tests to practice from as they are taken in September, October, December, February 2026, April, June and July assuming they are all released.
Calculator Policies: The TI nSpire Debate
The number two difference between the digital SAT and the enhanced ACT is that the Texas Instruments calculator, the TI nSpire CX II CAS (“the black one”), is legal on the SAT and illegal on the ACT. Though the TI nSpire CX II non-CAS (“the white one”) is legal on the ACT, it lacks access to the multivariable solve, expand, factor, solve system, and enter relation functions that can trivialize a humongous amount of questions that the ACT Math section doesn’t let you avoid. Students who can learn to make use of these functions drastically improve their position against students who fail to take advantage of overpowered technology.
I support the ACT’s decision to make the CAS calculator illegal! I have reached out to Collegeboard’s testing security team about the unique utility these calculators provide and asked them to make its use illegal. I was told that “Any policy changes will be reflected in future publications,” so I don’t think they cared very much about my opinion. Therefore, I will continue to recommend the use of the CAS model for the SAT because we don’t just want to get questions right: we are looking for the most effective tactics against the SAT. Students who become proficient with the TI nSpire CX II CAS will rack up extra spare time to throw at difficult math questions like 21 and 22 which can’t always be trivialized.
Making Your Choice
I remain a strong supporter of student choice, and if a student, after hearing these differences, was certain that they wanted to take the enhanced ACT despite its challenges, I would do my best to help them with the material that was available and my knowledge of the legacy ACT. I admit, I hope that all of my students choose the SAT in the short run, because it’s way less risky.
Test Innovators did a great infographic about the differences between these tests that I’ll show below. Props also to Brooke at SuperTutorTV who found the issue in this year’s red book.
Visualizing the Differences
SAT or ACT?
Students should figure out which test plays to their strengths and/or minimizes their weaknesses.
01
Availability of Materials
The digital SAT has way more available practice material than the enhanced ACT
02
USE OF CALCULATORS
The SAT allows the use of a CAS model calculator, which is overpowered
03
OPTIONAL SCIENCE
There are now only three required ACT sections: English, math, and reading
04
PAPER v DIGITAL
If you really like a paper test, the ACT can help you with that
Next SAT is September 13th
Next ACT is September 6th
My Mission
EMPOWER STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE LIFE'S GOALS
Client Testimonials
What Have Others Said About Starling Tutoring?
Do you prefer to hear what others have said about my tutoring? Check out my testimonials page.
