Even small changes in exams are discussed at length, so the discussions on the advantages of the digital ACT are only natural. After all, The ACT is taken by about 1.4 million students annually, which means any proposed changes need to be weighed carefully.
Some benefits of taking the ACT digitally are quite obvious: faster scoring and better accessibility features, for instance. Others are not so obvious, at least not immediately.
Moving to the online format hasn’t been an overnight decision; in 2017, the ACT was offered as a computer-adaptive test. So it’s obvious that ACT Inc. (the body that owns and conducts the ACT exam) would have found that the advantages of taking the ACT digitally are far too many to postpone moving to the online version any further.
This article demystifies all the benefits for you. But before that, a quick look at the online ACT exam would help set the context for our discussion.
Below are the five facts about the new format of the ACT that makes it different from the paper-and-pencil version:
Here are the most significant advantages of the digital ACT:
Even though most of us use digital devices daily, using one for a test that influences college admissions is different. It’s a bit like using a car: you’ve used it to commute, but using it for a car-racing event is way different because there’s considerable pressure to perform.
The digital ACT has on-screen tools that reduce your test-taking anxiety and improve your overall test-taking experience. Apart from a routine timer, you’ll see tools like a highlighter, flag button, answer eliminator, magnifier, and more.
How these tools help:
Want to highlight a particular text? Like to flag a question for future review? Wish to strike off an answer choice that looks incorrect? Maybe magnify a section of the text or image? You can do all this (and more) in the digital ACT.
The on-screen tools let you focus on important parts, hide information that diverts attention, and flag questions you want to return to.
(The on-screen magnifier lets you drag and resize the window.)
While the traditional version did make provisions for differently-abled students, they weren’t always adequate. For instance, a student who wasn’t technically blind but had different visual capacities could face significant challenges in the paper version.
How the digital ACT is fair to everyone:
One of the most laudable advantages of the digital ACT is how it makes the test more inclusive.
There are a few tools that make the test a level playing field for everyone. For instance, someone with color sensitivity can change the color settings of the test screen to suit their abilities.
(Different color settings make reading easier for the visually-challenged students.)
Considering that about 7 million students in the US have some form of disabilities, improved inclusivity is certainly a step in the right direction.
In an interview with the American Psychology Association (APA), psychologist Kate Sweeny underlined how stressful it can be to wait for your test scores.
And with the increasing number of students taking the ACT, delays in reporting scores would have been inevitable.
How this benefits everyone
Three out of every five (61 percent) students are estimated to be under stress for academic performance and grades. Traditional ACT scores were available between three and six weeks after the student took the test: a time long enough to only aggravate anxiety.
The new version will report scores within three days. This is one of the many advantages of taking the ACT digitally.
There are several benefits of receiving ACT scores in a shorter duration. The first, of course, is that it reduces the stress students may experience. Also, by receiving their scores early, students can make informed decisions earlier in the admissions cycle. They can better choose what colleges to apply to and thus stand a better chance of selection.
At the other end of the application process, decision-makers of scholarship committees get more time to review scholarship applications. This helps them award scholarships better.
The average test booklet for the ACT will have between 3 and 7 questions on each page, depending upon the section, type of question, and so on. That means your average ACT booklet is about 30 pages or 15 sheets of paper. Multiply it by the 1.4 million students who take the ACT in a year: that’s about 42 million pages a year.
In an age where people are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, reducing your use of paper is the right thing to do. That’s what the digital ACT does.
The digital ACT goes green:
Many students will take their ACT on a digital device, and not through a test booklet. This saves millions of papers every year. This advantage is quite significant if you look at it from the point of view of the environment.
Estimates suggest that a tree, on average, gives us about 8,000 papers of A4 size. Now it’s easy to see how switching to the digital version saves trees.
To be fair, cheating on tests like the ACT or the SAT isn’t as bad or as prevalent as gossip or movies make it out to be. CNN reports that in college entrance exams, no more than 0.2% of cases are flagged for cheating. Some 700-800 cases of potential cheating through impersonation are stopped from taking the test because of questionable IDs.
Yet, cheating happens and everyone wants to bring it down to zero. Cheating on tests hurts bonafide students who have worked hard and battled personal, financial, and academic challenges. Which is why anything that minimizes or eliminates cheating in the ACT is great.
How the digital ACT prevents cheating:
No test is perfect, but digital tests make cheating almost impossible. The digital ACT can shuffle the order of questions in each section without changing the question. As a result, it is possible that no two students would see the questions in the same order.
(If the two choices were simply interchanged, cheating would be almost impossible.)
It can get better when the ACT changes the order of the answer choices as well. Let’s say, Fred and Betty, plan to cheat. But Fred’s question #3 could be Betty’s question #20. On top of that, the answer choices could be rearranged too. What appears as option A for Fred might be option D for Betty. This small change can certainly be considered as one of the strongest advantages of taking the ACT digitally.
A paper-based test can evaluate many college-readiness skills yet there are limitations. When two students answer the same question correctly, the scoring mechanism of a paper-based test will rate them as having the same skills, at least for that particular question. Further understanding or analysis is typically not possible.
Better analysis is possible with digital tests:
A digital test can analyze the student’s test-taking pattern in-depth. Did some students first choose answer choice A and later change to choice D for a particular question? How much time did students spend on each question? How often did a student flag a question and later get it right?
Interestingly, that’s not all. A digital test can also track the mouse's movements to understand how the student scans the given information. We’re not saying the digital ACT does any of this, but several possibilities and data points will let test-takers understand each student to a deeper level. This understanding can become very valuable to colleges and educators later on.
(A digital test can easily track the time taken for each question and generate granular-level insights.)
Another advantage of an online ACT is that it paves the way for adaptive testing. Of course, the ACT is currently not adaptive. However, any time the test authorities decide to switch to the adaptive mode, the digital nature of the test can make it easy. That’s not possible with a paper-based test.
Several jobs and skills have become outdated since the time companies started using computers for nearly all sorts of business operations. A new set of skills is required today: the ability to research online, draft emails, create presentations, participate in webinars, and so on. And the use of the now-ubiquitous computer is central to all this.
That’s one of the reasons why a paper-based test begins to look a bit of an anachronism.
How a digital ACT makes more sense to the workplace:
A 2023 report from the National Skill Coalition says that 92% of jobs require some form of digital skills. the message is clear: digital skills are a must.
Students writing the test are not required to know coding, but they need to be comfortable using a computer. That’s exactly what nearly all careers require: you don’t need to be a coding expert, but you must certainly be able to use computers. The digital ACT exam, in that sense, is a precursor to professional life.
While the above analysis lists all the major advantages of the digital ACT, we’re not advocating that everyone should opt for the digital version. If you’re still in doubt, we recommend you write a mock ACT and speak to counselors and fellow students.
That said, it’s also obvious that the introduction of the online ACT clearly indicates the changing preferences of colleges and educators. So if you’re an ACT tutor, it’s high time you explored a a digital ACT practice platform that delivers everything your students need. Why not speak to our ACT expert and find out?
Several factors went into the decision to offer a digital ACT, including a better test experience, reflection of the skills required for the workforce, and feedback from colleges, educators, and students. With the online version, students have the freedom to decide the areas in which they should be evaluated.
The official ACT also acknowledges that with more test prep options (including their own) being offered online, it makes sense to make the test digital as well.
Students can choose from four options for the ACT exam because the Science section is now offered as an optional section. They are:
The ACT Inc., which is the official ACT testing body, clearly says that the digital ACT will be comparable to the paper-and-pencil version. So we do not expect the digital ACT to be any different in terms of the difficulty level. Of course, students will need to learn some new test-taking strategies.
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