2020 brings many changes into the world, but one in particular will affect high school students across America.

On Tuesday, October 8, 2019, the ACT announced it would begin to let students retake specific subject areas of the test instead of making students retake all five sections, including the optional writing section, as they have in previous years. Effective in September of 2020, this change will only apply to students who have already taken the entire ACT test at least once beforehand.

The main reasoning behind this development was to make it easier for students to improve their superscore, which is a combination of the highest scores achieved from each individual section of the tests that the student has taken. In the past, someone who wanted a better superscore had to continue to retake the entire test to improve each individual subject area. 

For some students, this change is seen as a helpful adjustment, especially   when    applying     to   colleges. 

“The ACT is something I’ve recently had to worry about, so it’s such a relief to hear the new changes that will be taking place,” junior Allie Rump said. “This will help me be able to improve my scores before applying to colleges, without the hassle and money I would have had to deal with before.” 

Since the ACT has been around for over 60 years, this was a revolutionary change for the standardized testing world, after the addition of the writing portion in 2015.

Although the ACT was a prominent test for a long period of time, the SAT recently surpassed it and became the most popular standardized test. The SAT has never allowed students to retake certain sections.

For this reason, some students have turned away from the ACT and towards the SAT instead. 

“I personally don’t like the change because that change alone makes the ACT very different from the SAT, junior Joanne Lee said. “Scholarship requirements and students’ studying will have to change drastically going into the future.”

This adjustment showcases the changing testing world and its ability to continue to revolutionize.