Recently ACT released updates on its transition to computer-based testing (CBT) for all international students. ACT announced last year that all students taking the exam abroad would take the ACT on computer starting in September 2018.

ACT has now launched a site where students, parents, and educators can try the new computer interface. The site also features a new FAQs sheet and a place to sign up for email alerts on the transition.

CHANGES IN THE INTERFACE

The ACT has upgraded the interface. Previously, we had access to the interface U.S. students who take the test as part of school day testing used. ACT has updated that interface with new tools and layout for international roll out. All of the changes, such as the addition of a highlighter are a step in the right direction.

Navigation: Now, students always see all of the questions in the section at the bottom of the screen, with indicators of which questions they flagged to revisit or those they left blank. This feature used to be hidden in a separate dropdown menu.

Highlighter: ACT added a highlighting function so students can now highlight words in the passages or questions. But this function is far from perfect. Students can’t highlight diagrams or pictures in Math and Science. And the highlights don’t carry over when a student moves to the next question. Why is this a problem? If you take the time to read an entire Reading passage, highlight all the important parts and then start the questions, the highlights you made only stay on the screen for the first question. When you move to the remaining nine questions for that passage, the highlights are gone. There are strategies to address this tool’s shortcomings, which students will need to learn and practice.

Timer: Students can now hide the onscreen timer that counts down for the section; it used to be a prominent and permanent part of the screen. This hiding feature is valuable for students with anxiety who might be intimidated by watching the seconds tick down.

Answer Eliminator: One of the best tools that has always been part of the interface is the Answer Eliminator, a tool that allows students to quickly cross off an answer they know is wrong. Now the eliminator tool is more convenient. Students can turn the tool on and leave it on for the entire section, and easily use it on any question at any time. In the old interface, students had to activate the eliminator on each question individually.

SO HOW TO PRACTICE?

Number 1 – keep doing the paper tests. The most important thing about the test – the content – is not changing, and all the same preparation you’ve done (and will do) on paper will still be relevant to the new format.

Once the ACT finalizes the computer-based format, it promises to “provide a tutorial and practice questions” in the style of the real test. This will probably be released in late June or July, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, the ACT does have some practice resources you can play around with — they just might not be the exact format that you’ll see in September.  ACT® Academy™ and TestNav — are free, and there’s also ACT Online Prep, which is available for purchase through the ACT website.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER IMPLICATIONS?

Yes. First of all, register early. At least in the first year, the ACT will not allow students to bring in their own laptops to use for the test. This means that testing centers will have to limit the available seats based on how many computers they have for students to use. The ACT promises to use a combination of existing test centers and new commercial testing centers to meet demand, but to ensure that you have a seat at your desired testing center, we recommend that you sign up as soon as registration opens in July.

The flipside of the potentially limited seats on a given test date is that there will likely be more test dates to choose from. Currently, there are five international test dates, with one in September, October, December, April, and June. With the switch to computer-based testing, there could be as many as six testing windows (in September, October, December, February, April, and June) with four test sessions for in each (Friday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon). It’s not clear whether you can select your preferred time, and the ACT has not promised that all sessions will be available at all testing centers.

Another implication – this one’s a good one – is that you’ll get your scores sooner! Multiple choice scores will be delivered as early as 2-3 days after the exam, so no more agonizing waits of 3+ weeks for your results!