On June 30, 2024, the Illinois State Board of Education ended its contract with the College Board, requiring all Illinois high schools, including ETHS, to administer the ACT beginning the 2024-2025 school year.
From 2017 to 2024, juniors at ETHS were required to take the state-administered SAT as part of their graduation requirements. Despite the College Board’s decision to make the standardized test digital in the spring of 2024, the state of Illinois continued to administer the test to students during the school year. However, as the Illinois State Board of Education’s contract with the College Board came to an end in late June of that year, the board issued a procurement for the continuation of administering the SAT. Following review by the State’s Procurement Office, with bids being put in by the College Board and ACT, the ACT was ultimately selected to be administered for its “technical elements, commitment to diversity, and [relative] price,” according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
The digital ACT, unlike any of the tests ACT has administered before, is administered online and has a few changes from the paper tests. The changes, which only affect the English and math sections, include removing an answer choice from math questions, straightforward instructions for English questions, and clarification for grammar questions in the English section. These enhancements were made by ACT to “support students’ success.”
Digital state-administered tests are not new to ETHS’s juniors, as they’ve taken the PSAT 10 and the PSAT/NMSQT 11 in previous years. However, the switch from taking the SAT to the ACT is entirely different for most students at ETHS. The SAT, which students are familiar with, provides a 64-minute reading and writing section and a 70-minute math section. The ACT, however, provides a 45-minute English section, an hour-long math section, a 35-minute reading section, a 35-minute science section, and a 40-minute writing section, making the test experience much longer and shorter in time per section compared to the SAT.
After taking the state-administered exam last Wednesday, many students expressed their thoughts about how the test went and the differences they noticed compared to the SAT.
“I just think that taking the ACT was pretty difficult for me,” said junior Tayyab Khan. “I feel like we haven’t had that many resources to prepare, unlike the SAT, as we were able to practice with the PSAT.”
Although the administration of the ACT is a mandatory requirement, District 202 decided to continue administering the PSAT/NMSQT. This allowed for students’ scores to be sent to colleges and universities and to simulate being in a standardized testing environment. Ultimately, the administration of the PSAT/NMSQT allowed for more preparation for the SAT despite the exam not being administered, leaving many students unfamiliar with the ACT’s testing process.
“I think that I liked the SAT more just because I’m used to the format of the questions and the sections,” junior Miriam Cortelyou added.
“But overall, I would say that my experience with the ACT wasn’t that bad for the first time taking it and the school’s first time administering it.”
