Summer ACT Updates

The ACT shared the following updates today. Most significantly, students should know the status of their July testing site by June 24th. Also, section retesting has been postponed so that the ACT can prioritize students who still need to test. Finally, the ACT plans to offer limited remote proctored ACT exams in late fall/early winter.

Our Commitment to July and Fall 2020 Testing
We remain committed to delivering students safe opportunities to test and will continue forward with our plans to administer a July 18 test administration. Testing will only take place in test sites deemed safe, and in accordance with CDC and local government essential business guidelines.

As more states and communities begin to “open up” in the coming weeks, we anticipate, and are preparing for, greater testing capacity for July 18 testing. We are working with state-level officials, as well as test centers around the globe, and have asked them to provide an open/closed status update to ACT by June 24th. Students registered for the July test date can expect an update on their test center status by the end of June.

Many things can happen between now and the July 18 test date and ACT is committed to actively communicating with students registered for the test on the status of their center through email and on our website.

For fall 2020 testing, we are exploring options to expand our test center network and evaluating opportunities to add additional test dates to provide as many safe options for testing as possible.

Postponing Section Retesting to Increase Capacity for Full Testing
ACT test registration for fall 2020 and spring 2021 test dates will open at the end of July.

Our priority is to expand access to full ACT testing, particularly for students in need of a composite score for admissions decisions, scholarship opportunities, placement, and career insights. In order to do this, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the rollout of section retesting, the option to take one section of the ACT® test at a time.

“Postponing the availability of section retesting for upcoming national ACT test dates will enable us to increase testing capacity for those who need to take the full ACT test,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin. “Our priority is to provide seats for those students most impacted by COVID-19-related capacity limitations who still need a composite score. This decision will also ease the burden on higher education professionals who are navigating their own unique challenges in response to the pandemic.”

ACT remains committed to offering superscoring and online testing options at selected national test centers this fall. We will also provide an increased number of fee waivers and additional score reports to students from underserved backgrounds. In late fall/early winter, we plan to offer a remote proctoring solution, allowing students to take the test online, at home or at other safe and convenient locations. These options will improve students’ test-taking experience and increase their opportunities for college admissions and scholarships, while setting the stage for the future release of section retesting.

Remote Proctoring Solutions
In addition to these new options, ACT plans to roll out a remote proctoring solution on a limited basis in late fall/early winter. While more information will be released at a later date, ACT is working with a trusted, reliable partner to deliver this capability in safe and secure environments beyond students’ homes.

Remote proctoring has been around for decades and is widely used by both public and private sector organizations, including hundreds of colleges and universities around the country. Proctored assessments have run the gamut from basic history quizzes to exams that credential doctors. Today’s proctoring technology ensures that the test-taker experiences the convenience of taking an exam remotely, without sacrificing any privacy.