It’s been an eventful week for the ACT. Yesterday, ACT announced significant changes to the fall testing calendar in the US. They have added an additional test date in September, two additional test dates in October, and ACT has opened up Sunday testing (previously reserved for students with religious conflicts) to all students in both months. In this unprecedented move, ACT has dramatically increased access to testing across the country. In summary:
September Test Dates:
Saturday 9/12
Sunday 9/13 – Now open to ALL students!
Saturday 9/19 – NEW
October Test Dates:
Saturday 10/10 – NEW
Saturday 10/17 – NEW
Saturday 10/24
Sunday 10/25 – Now open to ALL students!
In the official announcement, ACT emphasizes their commitment to providing a safe, socially distanced testing experience while maximizing access to in-person testing. Important to note, however, is that not all locations will be offering these new test dates. ACT still has the task of convincing locations to open for testing on a site-by-site basis. In California and New York especially, where state laws limit the number of ACT test dates, there is still uncertainty on how widely available these new test dates will be. We may not know for sure where these test dates are available until registration opens in the last week of July.
Also, please note:
The new test dates do not seem to be available to students testing outside of the US. (The ACT did not mention any changes to the international testing calendar.)
There was no mention of how this expansion may affect students with special testing accommodations.
In other news, on June 18th ACT announced that section retesting — originally planned for this fall — will be delayed until later in 2021 in order to increase testing capacity for those who need to take the full ACT test. Needless to say, testing this fall may look very different from the original plan.
As always, we are happy to answer any questions, concerns, or provide guidance in adjusting to these recent changes. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we are here to help as we all navigate this challenging time.