If you're in the high school class of 2026, you're in a unique position as far as your SAT or ACT testing timeline goes. Due to scheduling nuances of the tests this year, current juniors are liable to potentially make a very big mistake that is going to eat up a lot of your time and effort—WITHOUT even getting you the score that you want!
But I’m not going to let that happen to you. Because I’m Kristina, a test prep tutor for over 14 years, and it’s my mission to get students the highest scores they’re capable of.
Today’s post is going to break down the special situation that YOUR class (and your class only) is in. Then, I’m going to walk you through how exactly NOT to make the big misstep that many of your classmates are going to make!
(BTW, if you’re NOT in the Class of 2026 but are wondering how the coming changes to the ACT affect you, this previous post will explain everything you need to know.)
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Video version of this article
2. Typical standardized testing timeline
3. Why the ACT timeline is different for current Juniors
a. When the ACT changes…if you take it online
b. When the ACT changes…if you take it on paper
c. Why does the arrival date of the new ACT affect YOU?
4. What the Class of 2026 should do about the updated ACT
5. Conclusion
Video version of this article:
The typical standardized testing timeline
If you’re still reading this article, you’re likely just starting your Junior year in high school (or you’re the parent of someone in that class year).
In years past, most of my students have started their test prep at the beginning of junior year. First you figure out whether you’re an SAT person or an ACT person; then, you use all of junior year to learn all the content and strategies you need to learn AND to actually sit for and take your test (often multiple times). Hopefully you’ve achieved your target score (whether in one sitting or through super scoring) by the end of junior year, but many students have not. Kids in that latter scenario continue taking the ACT or SAT into the summer after junior year or even into the fall of senior year.
Now, some other students DON’T start their test prep at the beginning of 11th grade. Instead, I see a lot of people BEGINNING to think about this whole test prep thing in the middle of their fall semester of junior year. So maybe in October or November, it’s starting to dawn on them, “Oh, I'm going to have to take one of these tests, I guess. Hmm. I wonder which one I should take. Let me start figuring that out.”
However, some start even later. I get so many calls after the spring semester has started—we’re talking January, February, or even March—from students dipping their toes in the waters of their test prep journey.
Why the ACT Is Different for current 11th Graders
Now I’m going to reveal what’s different for you, the Class of 2026, and why we will not have that same wide array of timing options at our fingertips for your testing schedule.
If you are already CERTAIN you’re taking the SAT, then nothing's changing for you. 2024-25 offers approximately the same SAT testing dates that we've always had, and the test itself already underwent its big change (the move from a paper-and-pencil to fully Digital SAT) a couple years ago. So for the time being we're good; the SAT is what it is. In all likelihood it shouldn't be undergoing any crazy big changes for another five or six years.
Not so for the American College Test, your other university admissions test option.
Now, the ACT has a long history of staying pretty consistent as a test. I've been in this biz for over a decade, and over the course of that time, they’ve mostly made little tweaks here and there. Say, “Oh, we're gonna change the essay topic.” Or, “The Science section now has six passages instead of seven, and they each ask one more question to bump the total number of section Qs up to 40.” Or “We’re adding a double passage to the Reading section.”
What’s more, the ACT usually doesn't even tell you ahead of time when they're making the change. Instead, a test will pop up all of a sudden, and it'll now have fewer Science passages…and then that’ll be forevermore how they do the test.
However, if you've been reading my blog (or watching my YouTube channel), you know that the ACT has announced that very big changes are coming down the pike. We’re talking a VERY different format. Some things are staying the same (here’s a list of them), but a lot of very fundamental things are changing (and here’s a list of them).
What matters most for our purposes right now, Class of 2026, is WHEN these changes are happening.
New schedule if you take the ACT online
If you are going to be taking the ACT, but you're going to do it on your laptop (an uncommon option, but an option all the same), then the change will come for you in April of 2025.
For a lot of online ACT students, the first or second test sitting that you would consider taking would be in February or April of your junior year. However, if you take that April sitting, you’ll be taking a really new version of the test. “What? Science is optional now? What? There's a different number of minutes and different number of questions per section? What is going on?!”
Thus, this is going to be a huge shift for you—and currently, the ACT has mentioned on their website that they will release a practice test for that new version of the test in early 2025. That's months away from now.
New timeline for paper ACT
Now, if you opt to stay with paper and pencil, then you get a little more time before the big changeover. In this case, the test will remain in its same, current format for you through all of your junior year, including the July 2025 test sitting. This is the test format that we ALREADY have practice tests for, and that tons of test prep books and resources (like my free articles on the ACT) are based on.
The change for a paper and pencil test taker will happen in September 2025—about a year from now.
How does the new ACT schedule affect YOU?
Here’s the takeaway from this schedule that I’ve just spelled out: the ACT switchover will likely take place right in the middle of when you would normally be studying for and taking the test. So for an online test taker, the test would transform in the spring of your junior year; for paper-and-pencil, it’ll transform in the fall of your senior year. So if you are one of those people who needs to run a little long with your testing because you need multiple sittings, then unfortunately the ACT would be changing in September of your senior year…in the home stretch of your test sittings :(
What Juniors Should Do about the Changing American College Test
So, you’re left with a couple options...only ONE of which is advisable!
Option 1: start prepping now. (recommended!)
This is the plan I endorse because it prioritizes efficiency. You’ll study for ONE type of test, get used to ONE format, train towards ONE pacing, and take the test for as many test settings as you need to get the super score you need….all BEFORE the ACT changes big-time.
Your gameplan:
1) If you haven’t already done so, the minute you finish reading this post, you need to start figuring out which test is for you, the SAT or the ACT. (I offer a free quiz to help you figure that out.)
2a) Let’s say you take the quiz and determine that you're an SAT person. Well, that’s great! You don't even have to deal with the fact that the ACT is changing because it won't affect you. But by figuring this out early, at least you'll KNOW that you can rest easy for now.
2b) HOWEVER, if you make your ACT-vs.-SAT decision and conclude that it’s the ACT life for you, you can and should start your test prep right now. That way you’ll have through next July (of 2025) to prep for and take as many ACT test sittings as you need (if you opt for the paper and pencil version of the test, that is, as most students do).
This magic solution gives you a whole school year's worth of test sittings to study and sit for the ACT to get the superscore that you need.
Option 2: wait 'til early 2025 to start prepping (not recommended!)
This is the mistake that a lot of students in your class might make. I suspect many current juniors don’t realize the ACT switcheroo is coming down the road (or don’t realize how MAJOR the switcheroo will be), and thus think their testing process and timeline will be the same as it’s been for juniors past. You watched your upperclassmen friends or your older sibling go through it last year, so you can just roughly follow their study schedule, right? So maybe you wait a few months, maybe even until January or February of your junior year, before you start to think about test prep.
But if you wait ‘til late winter (or early spring ‘25) to even think about your standardized testing, and THEN you find out that you are best suited to the ACT, you’ve already basically missed out on the October sitting and the December sitting.
Sure, you’d hypothetically have the February, April, June and July sittings still available to you, but that doesn't necessarily offer adequate study and testing time for those of you who need to make a significant improvement in your score. Plus, you might need quite a bit of time before that first February sitting to learn all the concepts and strategies you need. November to February is only three months, so maybe that's not enough time for you to get the pacing, content, and strategies down.
Or, say you go ahead and take those first four tests, but still aren’t satisfied with your superscore come July….meaning that now you have to study and adapt to the NEW test that’s being administered in Fall of 2025.
Because the ACT has changed midway through your testing timeline, now you have to adapt to a radically different pacing of the test, which we in the test prep industry have not seen in action or on practice tests yet and therefore cannot adequately prepare you for. So you’d be taking a gamble.
No one’s saying you can’t do all that. It's just really inefficient.
Conclusion
This post has been a PSA of sorts. If you have just started your junior year in high school, i.e. are in the class of 2026, please don't wait until November or December to start choosing between the SAT and ACT.
Yesterday was the best time to start, actually, and the second-best time to start is TODAY. You can at least jump through that important hoop of figuring out which test is for you. And then, if the ACT turns out to be ideal for you, now at least you have enough time that you could get started, prep, learn all the things you need to, and still have enough test settings to get the thing truly done by July 2025, when the test switches over.
If you need help actually executing any of those steps, I've got a couple resources for you, in addition to my free articles here. If you conclude you’re going to take the ACT and decide you want to get started on your prep now so you don’t have to learn a second format, I’ve created a series of ebooks and online courses on the ACT. They're completely self-paced and will teach you ALL the content and strategy you need to ace every one of the ACT’s sections.
I’m also available to work with one-on-one. I can assess your weaknesses and strengths as a test-taker, make a start-to-finish study gameplan for you, or work with you on an hourly basis.
So please don’t sleep on this important decision. I wish you the best of luck!
