The following statement is from Sam Pritchard, director of college prep programs, Kaplan Test Prep, regarding today’s announcement by the ACT on upcoming changes to the ACT college admissions exam, which was taken by nearly 2 million high school students this year:
“These are the most significant changes to the ACT in several decades and are designed to give aspiring college students more options in putting their best foot forward. First, allowing students to retake individual test sections, rather than retaking a three hour test, will enable them to focus their energy and study efforts accordingly to improve sectional performance. Second, putting the ability to ‘superscore’, or aggregate the best section scores from all tests taken, into the hands of the test taker allows students to present schools with their best test performance. Finally, the shift to digital provides more immediate reporting, which can give students more flexibility. Instead of waiting for the 2-8 weeks it can typically take for score reports to arrive, test takers can expect to receive their scores within two days, which gives them additional time to study or decide if they want to retake the exam.
“These are overall very positive changes for test takers, but there are a couple of issues we’ll monitor closely to understand their full impact. Making retesting more manageable may motivate certain students to retake test sections several times, which can feed into unnecessary test anxiety. Students should go into test day believing this will be the only time they’ll take the test, rather than relying on retest options. And not all students and high schools have internet access to practice the digital test format, which is why the test maker’s decision to keep a paper-and-pencil format option is important in ensuring all students continue to have access and options.
“But the shift to a digital format follows a trend we’ve seen among major admissions exams over the past decade, as the admissions exams for graduate school, business school, law school, and medical school have all already made the switch from paper-and-pencil to digital. This makes the SAT® the last major admissions exam remaining in a paper-and-pencil format.
“For test takers, it’s important to keep in mind that the test’s structure, scoring and content remain exactly the same.”
These changes mark the biggest changes to the ACT since 1989, when certain sections were changed (Natural Science was replaced with Science Reasoning, Social Studies was replaced with Reading, trigonometry and pre-algebra were added, as was a focus on writing). In 2005, the optional Writing section was introduced.
Kaplan is the official, exclusive partner for live, online prep for the ACT test and offers free comprehensive prep for fee waiver students. Kaplan will continue to share updates to help parents and students understand the changes.
To schedule an interview with an ACT expert at Kaplan, contact Russell Schaffer at russell.schaffer@kaplan.com or 212.453.7538.
ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. Kaplan is the official partner for live online prep for the ACT.
About Kaplan Test Prep
Kaplan Test Prep (www.kaptest.com) is a premier provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses. Established in 1938, Kaplan is the world leader in the test prep industry. With a comprehensive menu of online offerings as well as a complete array of print books and digital products, Kaplan offers preparation for more than 200 standardized tests, including entrance exams for secondary school, college and graduate school, as well as professional licensing exams for attorneys, physicians and nurses. Among those tests are the SAT®, PSAT®, ACT®, GRE®, GMAT®, LSAT®, MCAT®, NCLEX-RN® and bar exams. Kaplan also provides private tutoring and graduate admissions consulting services.
Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC)
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191008005559/en/
Copyright Business Wire 2019