Students must be checked in by 8AM Saturday morning of your test date, so it’s recommended to show up at the testing center at least 15 minutes beforehand. What Else You Need to Know About Testing Day If your proctor attempts to skip this break, please let them know that you would like this time for a rest, as you are entitled to this 10-minute break to regroup.
Sometimes there are differences in this schedule based on the strictness of the proctor on break time or if there is any kind of problem or disruption during the test that needs to be taken care of.Īfter the Math section of the MCAT, all test takers receive a 10-minute break. Generally speaking, this is the schedule you will experience across all testing centers. Let’s have a look at the schedule broken out by section for an 8:30AM exact start time: Sectionīreak (may leave if not taking the essay) The testing usually begins between 8:30AM and 9:30AM, although all students are required to arrive at the test-taking center at 8AM for check-in. Including breaks, the ACT with optional essay is 3 hours and 50 minutes long. If you take ACT with optional essay, the testing time is 3 hours and 35 minutes.Including breaks, the ACT is 3 hours and 35 minutes long.
So read on and see how long the ACT takes and what exactly to expect. Knowing exactly what you are getting yourself into and being prepared for the test is a great way to avoid any unnecessary stress or concern on test day.
It’s important to know how to pace yourself on the test as well as take advantage of breaks to recover before jumping back into the race. Many choose to think of the ACT as more of a marathon than a sprint. With a minute per question, being able to answer questions efficiently and effectively is key! Though students won't be happy sitting for the extra time, students should take comfort in the fact that this extra "surprise" section won't factor into their test results.For those with the question “how long is the ACT,” you are already thinking ahead to one of the biggest constraints of the ACT: time. It is important that students are aware that they will encounter the experiment section, but that it will not count toward their scores. (Students with extra time accommodations are exempt.) For students taking the essay, the experimental section comes immediately beforehand.Īll students who take the SAT or ACT under standard timing conditions will be required to test for an additional twenty minutes-a non-trivial addition to an already 4-hour exam. In the fall of 2018, however, both the SAT and ACT began including the experimental sections for all students taking the tests under standard timing conditions-even those sitting for the essay. Despite the potential for test takers' flippancy, it still makes sense for the College Board and ACT to administer the experimental sections: there will be enough students who will treat them as if they'll count, and who will thus provide valuable data to the test creators.īecause it used to be the final section of only the tests that did not include the optional essay, the experimental section was a minor annoyance for a subset of students, and didn’t detract from any sections that counted. After the 2016 SAT redesign, the College Board followed suit, administering an experimental section as the final section of the test for students not taking the essay.įor both exams, the experimental section is twenty minutes long, and can feature questions from one of any of the other four graded sections. Students familiar with the structure of the exams will know it's experimental, and could choose to select random answers-or no answers at all-secure in the knowledge that doing so won't affect their scores. For the ACT, it has always been an uncounted fifth and final section of the test until recently, it was given only to those students who opted not to take the writing (essay) portion of the ACT. Prior to the 2016 redesign of the SAT, it was one of the nine multiple choice sections of the test, and was usually difficult for students to detect while they were taking the exam. This is nothing new: the SAT and ACT have included an experimental section for many years. for the ACT) to collect data about new test questions in a controlled environment. It enables the test administrators (The College Board for the SAT, and ACT, Inc.
On both exams, the experimental section is a section of the test that does not count toward a student’s score.