The Enhanced ACT, Explained: What Changed and What It Means for Your Score

If your teen is preparing for the ACT this year, they are taking a different test from the one you took, and a different one from what an older sibling took two years ago. ACT, Inc. began rolling out the Enhanced ACT in April 2025, and it is now the standard version everywhere.

This matters more than a typical test refresh, because the changes affect how long test day runs, which sections count, and whether the prep book on your shelf is still useful.

What Actually Changed?

Three things, and each one has a practical consequence.

The test is about 50 minutes shorter. The core Enhanced ACT covering English, Math, and Reading runs about 125 minutes, down from roughly 175 minutes of required testing on the old format.

Science became optional. It is now an add-on, like Writing. It earns its own score and no longer affects the Composite.

The Composite is now the average of three sections instead of four. English, Math, and Reading determine it.

How Do the Sections Compare to the Old Test?

Section	Old ACT	Enhanced ACT
English	75 questions / 45 min	50 questions / 35 min
Math	60 questions / 60 min	45 questions / 50 min
Reading	40 questions / 35 min	36 questions / 40 min
Science	40 questions / 35 min, required	40 questions / 40 min, optional
Composite	Average of all 4 sections	Average of English, Math, Reading

A few details inside those numbers are worth pointing out to your teen.

Reading gained time. It now allows 40 minutes for 36 questions, where the old format gave 35 minutes for 40. Reading used to be the most time-pressured section on the test, and that pressure eased considerably.

Math dropped an answer choice. Questions now offer four options instead of five, which quietly improves the odds on any question your teen has to guess.

Passages got shorter. English and Reading use shorter passages with fewer questions attached to each one, so there is less to hold in mind at a time.

How Long Is Test Day Now?

This depends entirely on which optional sections your teen signs up for, which makes it worth working out in advance:

• Core sections only: about 125 minutes, or roughly 2 hours and 5 minutes.
• Core plus Science: about 165 minutes, or roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes.
• Core, Science, and Writing: about 205 minutes, or roughly 3 hours and 25 minutes.

None of those totals include breaks or check-in time, so plan for a longer morning than the testing minutes suggest.

What Stayed the Same?

Quite a lot, which is reassuring if you are worried that everything your teen has already learned is now obsolete.

• The 1-36 scale. Sections and the Composite are still scored the same way, and scores are equated so colleges can compare Enhanced ACT results directly against older ones.
• The content. Grammar and rhetoric in English, the same math domains through pre-calculus, main purpose and inference questions in Reading. The skills being tested did not change.
• No penalty for guessing. Your teen should never leave a question blank.
• Optional Writing. The essay is still optional, and relatively few colleges require it.

Should Your Teen Take the Science Section?

This is the real decision the Enhanced ACT introduces, and the answer depends on where they are applying.

Taking Science is the safer default for students heading toward engineering, pre-med, nursing, or other STEM-heavy programs. Some of those programs recommend it, and a strong Science score plus the STEM score gives an admissions reader one more piece of supporting evidence.

Skipping it is reasonable when the college list leans toward humanities, business, or liberal arts, particularly if practice Science scores are coming in well below the other three sections. Opting out also removes 40 minutes of test-day fatigue, which is not nothing for a student who struggles with stamina.

Either way, check the standardized testing page for each college on the list before deciding. Policies still vary, and some are being revised as admissions offices adjust to the new format.

How Should This Change Your Teen's Prep?

Pacing has to be relearned. The most common mistake we see is a student practicing with old ACT tests and internalizing the wrong clock. English now allows about 42 seconds per question instead of 36, and Reading about 67 seconds instead of 52. Pacing is a trained skill, and training it against the wrong numbers is worse than not training it. Every timed practice test should use current section lengths.

Each section carries more weight now. With three sections averaged instead of four, a weak English score can no longer be offset by a strong Science score. If your teen is aiming at a specific Composite, the arithmetic is straightforward: a 27 Composite means English, Math, and Reading need to average 27, and the fastest route there is usually lifting whichever of the three is lowest. We have mapped out how long that tends to take in How Long Does It Take to Raise Your ACT Score?

Decide about Science early. If your teen is taking it, include it in every full-length practice test so their stamina matches test day. If they are skipping it, redirect that practice time toward the three sections that determine the Composite.

How Vantage Handles the Format Change

The practical problem for most families is finding practice material that matches the current test. Vantage builds its full-length practice tests to the Enhanced ACT format exclusively, with current question counts and real section timing, so the pacing your teen practices is the pacing they will face. Score reports break results down section by section, which is what you need to decide where the remaining prep hours should go.

The Enhanced ACT is a more manageable test than its predecessor. It is shorter, less rushed, and the strategic choices are clearer. What it rewards is preparing for the test as it exists now rather than the version described in a prep book from three years ago.