The New ACT Format: Is the ACT Science Section Optional?
Yes, the ACT Science section is now optional as part of the new ACT format introduced in 2025, which also included a transition to a shorter time length, fewer questions, and a digital format option.
Perhaps the biggest alteration is that the Science section is no longer required. This means that students can choose for themselves whether or not to include the ACT Science section on their test. Students who include Science will remain in the testing room after the Reading section is complete to take the additional 40-minute test. Students who do not include Science will be free to leave after the Reading section.
As with the optional Writing section, you can register for the Science section when you sign up for a test date on the ACT website. Including Science adds an additional $5 to the cost of the test.
Understanding the New 3-Section ACT Composite and Your Science Score
The “composite score” of the ACT is the top-line overall score that schools consider, calculated by averaging certain section scores of the test. In the old scoring system, the ACT took the average of four sections (English, Math, Reading, and Science) to find the composite. The new ACT does not include Science in its calculation of the composite score. Instead, it averages the three non-Science sections (English, Math, and Reading) to find that overall score.
Students who take Science will still receive a score (out of 36) for the section, but that number won’t have any impact on the composite. For instance, if you get a 25 in Science but a 30 each in English, Reading, and Math, you will still end up with a 30 composite – the lower Science score won’t influence that top number. Conversely, a higher Science score won’t “help out” a lower English, Reading, or Math score, so the importance of your comfort with grammar, reading comprehension, and algebra skills has increased significantly.
Should You Take the ACT with Science?
It might be tempting to knock an entire section off your testing to-do list, especially since it won’t count toward the new composite score. Before writing it off completely, though, we recommend doing a bit of research and strategizing.
First, check out the testing requirements of your preferred colleges. A few colleges still require the ACT Science section (Pomona College, Boston University, Georgetown University, George Washington University for applicants to the BA/MD program). Some others recommend it (Duke University, Pepperdine University for nursing students). If these or other colleges that require/recommend Science are on your list, you’ll need to take it at least once.
If your preferred colleges don’t require or recommend the Science section, you might want to take it anyway, particularly if you are planning to major in a science-related field. Submitting a strong Science score can help show schools that you are prepared for their curriculum. Even if you aren’t planning to study science, if you are good at analyzing data and quickly understanding information, those skills could earn you a good score that would benefit your application. We definitely recommend taking a Science practice test as a diagnostic; if you ace it, you should consider adding it to your test day!
On the other hand, if none of your schools require or recommend Science, you aren’t entering a STEM-heavy field, and you don’t ace your initial Science practice test, it might be best to focus your prep time on the other three sections. For many students, the composite score will carry the most weight with colleges, so lifting English, Math, and Reading will have a bigger impact on admissions outcomes.
What’s on the Test? Analyzing ACT Science Questions
The Science section is composed of seven passages with a total of 40 questions. Each passage falls into one of three categories: Data Representation, Research Summary, and Conflicting Viewpoints.
Data Representation passages are usually the most straightforward, consisting of a short explanation of some scientific topic and charts or graphs providing data on that topic. The questions on these passages test your ability to quickly and precisely locate and understand information on the charts and graphs.
Research Summary passages include a description of an experiment along with charts or graphs detailing the results of that experiment. In addition to testing data analysis, these passages require a basic understanding of the scientific method and an ability to quickly grasp the procedures and reasoning of the described experiment.
Conflicting Viewpoints passages are the most reading-intensive. They present a scientific problem and then lay out multiple potential solutions. These solutions will not be scientifically accurate, and you are not expected to decide which is the best. Instead, the questions ask you to compare the solutions to one another. Carefully identifying the similarities and differences among the solutions will allow you to correctly answer most questions on these passages.
How to Prep for the ACT Science Section (If You Take It)
1. Get Familiar with the ACT Science Format
Preparation for ACT Science mainly involves becoming as familiar as you can with the timing of the section and its question types. Despite the section’s name, you won’t need to memorize a lot of scientific facts or formulas. Only a few questions on each test require outside knowledge. Mostly, the questions are answerable with the information provided in the passages.
2. Start with Untimed Practice Tests
The more difficult aspect of the Science section is the speed with which you’ll need to process a lot of information. A good way to prep for this section is to complete several practice tests and/or practice passages from a coursebook. First do a few untimed so that you can practice accuracy.
Pay close attention to the details in the question: these will often tell you exactly where to look for the answer in the passage. Then pinpoint the relevant information in the text or the chart/graph. Finally, choose the answer option that best matches that information.
3. Run Timing Drills on Full Sections
Once you’ve built workable methods for approaching this section and have become somewhat familiar with the passage and question types, run timing drills on passages and full sections. You’ll discover which types of passages you’ll need to finish quickly to have time for the others (the Data Analysis passages are the fastest for most students). You’ll only have an average of one minute for each question. The more comfortable you become with the format of this test, the faster and more accurately you’ll be able to move through it.
4. Review Every Mistake Carefully
Be sure to check your answers after every practice test and fully review anything that you missed! Ask yourself what you could have done differently to answer those questions accurately. Then apply those insights to your next practice test.
Final Thoughts: Navigating the New ACT with Confidence
For many students, removing the Science section from the composite will relieve some of the pressure of preparing for the ACT – which can be a great help! Especially if your main goal is a good overall score, you can put most of your energy into studying for English, Math, and Reading. If you master those sections and want to add in Science, you can always do so on a later test.
For those students who definitely want a strong Science score, the good news is you might only need to take it once! Dedicating some time each week to completing and reviewing a few practice passages should get you up to speed on this section’s format and strategies. After you’ve taken your first official test, as long as you are happy with your score, you can leave it off any additional tests going forward and focus on the remaining three sections – and your top-line composite score.
FAQs about the ACT Science Section:
Why would colleges require Science if it’s optional?
The ACT does its best to build a test that will give colleges and universities useful information on whether a student is likely to succeed at their school – that’s why schools have kept requiring (or recommending) the ACT and SAT from applicants for so many years.
The ACT has decided that the Science section is no longer necessary, but testing companies haven’t always successfully anticipated what schools will want. For instance, although both the ACT and SAT added essay writing sections in the 2000s, only the ACT still includes one as an option on its regular testing day, and almost no schools require it.
The SAT does not have a Science section, but it does include questions that test scientific analysis on both its Reading & Writing and its Math section. The ACT hasn’t added the same sorts of science questions on its other three sections, so schools that want evidence of a student’s scientific aptitude might value the Science score.
In addition, the SAT overall score is evenly balanced between math and verbal sections, while the ACT composite now averages two verbal sections and one math section. Especially for STEM-focused schools, including the Science section could help give them a better sense of a student’s readiness for their programs.
Can I take Science and choose to omit the score later?
You cannot omit a Science score from a test once you have taken it. If you submit that test to colleges, your Science score will be included. You can, however, remove the Science section from your test any time before the late registration deadline. You might even be able to tell the proctor at your testing site that you’ve decided not to take the Science section and only take the remaining three sections that day.
Once you’ve taken the test, though, the only way to avoid sending the Science score to schools is withhold all results from that test date. Some schools do allow you to decide what test dates to submit. Others require you to send scores for all ACT tests you have taken.
Does the SAT have a Science section now?
The SAT has two sections: Reading & Writing and Math. It does not include a separate Science section. It’s important to note, though, that the SAT does integrate scientific reasoning and analysis into its test; it requires students to interpret charts and graphs, understand dense science-focused passages, and analyze statistics questions about sample size, study methodology, etc.
