During the 2024-2025 school year, the ACT replaced the SAT as the standardized test in schools all over Illinois. This change was due to the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) contract ending on June 30. 2024 with the College Board for high school accountability assessments. This resulted in a negative change for high schools as they stopped offering the SAT and started offering the ACT. Additionally, freshmen started taking the PreACT 9 Secure, and sophomores began taking the PreACT Secure. I believe that the test should have stayed as the SAT and it is unfair to students to change them. These changes may last until the 2029-30 school year, which will be followed by the ISBE implementing the process of finding a new contract. Doing this process again is unfair to the students who prepare for the test, just as it was unfair for the students last year when the test changed. 

While the ACT and SAT are both timed, standardized tests that assess you on your math and reading skills, there are a lot of important differences between them, which is helpful for understanding why keeping the SAT would have been better. 

Beginning with test content and length, the ACT has four sections, including reading, English, math and science, each with its own time restriction. The ACT focuses on testing the knowledge of high school topics, and as it is a linear test, the difficulty will not change over time. 

This contrasts with the test setup of the SAT, which has two sections—reading and math, each with two modules. While there is still a timer, the SAT has fewer questions, which results in more time per question and a less stressful test. However, the SAT is more problem-solving based, which means that the questions will adjust to match how well you are answering the questions. 

Both of these tests require different studying techniques due to the dissimilarity of the tests’ structures and pacing. So, changing the standardized testing model is a bigger deal to some students than it may seem. 

Now, is this a good change? According to Kaplan Test Prep, usually students have spent 10 to 20 hours a week preparing for the SAT. This would be time wasted when it comes to test prep, since the test changed from SAT to ACT. Also, the studying doesn’t necessarily translate over as the tests are so different. This change messed up students’ preparations so the test should have just stayed as the SAT.

Obviously, a student can take both the ACT and SAT if they like and they can take each one multiple times to get their desired score, but these tests aren’t cheap. An ACT’s baseline fee is $68, an extra $4 for the optional science portion and another $25 for the writing section. Similarly, the fee for an SAT is $68. 

Of course, the ACT does have its benefits, the content is broader, with it including a science portion and the test questions are more straightforward. However, I still believe that the SAT is a better test and shouldn’t have been switched, as the questions change to determine the test taker’s understanding of topics. It is also a slower pace and I find it less stressful.

After the 2029-2030 school year, students will be facing the same issues as the students did last year, as the contract will be ending that year. Will schools keep the ACT? Or will the SAT be the norm again? 

Ultimately, with all the effort that many students have put into studying and preparing for the SAT in previous years, I don’t think that the change to the SAT from ACT was fair to students due to the time and money wasted on doing the necessary actions to be ready for the test.