Assessment | News

ACT Gives First Digital Exams

• By Christopher Piehler
• 04/14/14

This past Saturday, about 4,000 high school students across the country took the ACT college readiness assessment on a computer. The first-ever computer-based national undergraduate college admission exam was administered to an invited group of 11th-grade students in 80 high schools across 23 states. 

According to ACT, the scores that participating students earned on the digital version of the exam will be official and can be reported to colleges. The content of the exam was the same as that of the paper-and-pencil version, and reported scores will mean the same in terms of level of achievement for this administration.

Although this computer-based version of the ACT was administered on a national ACT test date, it will initially be offered as an option only in schools that administer the exam to all students on a school day as part of their districtwide or statewide assessment program. The digital version will officially launch in spring 2015 in invited states and school districts.