Students Now Allowed to Retake Parts of the ACT

SABRINA TANG Staff Writer

U.S. News reports that starting in Sept. 2020, students taking the ACT will now have the opportunity to retake certain sections of the test. This is one of the major changes the testing company is making to adapt to the new policies of higher education. 

The opportunity for retakes on individual portions of the ACT was created to encourage better performance in subjects such as math and English. According to the U.S. News and World Report, the testing company will create a superscore, which is a student’s best score from each section. The company suggests superscoring is more predictive of how students will perform in their college  courses than other scoring methods. 

The hope is that this will improve testing experiences taking into consideration that the number of students taking the test has substantially decreased over the years. In addition, options for taking the test online or on paper are being offered for students who want faster test results. Amid mounting criticism concerning unfair advantages toward wealthier communities, ACT and College Board are experimenting with different alternatives to provide convenient access to tests and promote equity and testing integrity.

 “Recently, there have been many scams and lawsuits about cheating incidents and it makes me concerned about whether students being accepted into these colleges are truly qualified,” junior Minh Vo said. 

The company is also implementing another change to ensure equity among test takers. Students will now have to provide admission officers with their socioeconomic information such as information about their high school and neighborhood, data on neighborhood crime rates, education levels and median family income.

 Although test scores do not encompass the entirety of a student’s abilities, accurate scoring are thought to contribute to a fair and valid overview of a student’s college readiness.