In our inaugural blog post, we touch on the new ACT and our testing/tutoring plans for the year
Greetings wonderful Westchester Prep families, and welcome to the grand opening of our blog! In our first post, we give some background on the release timeline of preparatory material for the new ACT and outline our plan of action with regards to tutoring said test. A detailed breakdown of the test changes themselves will follow in the near future… stay tuned!
As some of you may already know, the ACT has recently undergone changes for the first time in over a decade. Unfortunately, ACT has not been forthcoming with official preparatory material for the new exam: up to this point, the only practice tests they have released— 25MC1, 25MC2, 25MC3, and 25MC4, all of which can be found in their Official ACT Prep Guide 2025-2026— consist entirely of problems recycled from old exams that students already had access to. While the sneak peek at the new structure provided by those practice tests is moderately useful, it’s hard to imagine that ACT is rolling out a revamped exam without changing any of the question types or material, especially given the relatively significant changes College Board made when rolling out their Digital SAT in early 2024. Anecdotal returns from students who took the new version of the test in September seem to buttress our suspicion that there will be some adjustments to question types and content. One excellent feature the ACT has traditionally offered is their TIR (now called ACT My Answer Key), which allows students to order a complete score report— their answers + the full test booklet— for certain official exams. Fortunately, ACT is continuing this policy; they have announced that they will be releasing ACT My Answer Keys for the upcoming October 18th exam. In November, once the My Answer Keys are released, we will finally have access to an official ACT exam in the new format. This will be far and away our best look at the new changes.
As such, we are excited to announce that on December 13th 2025, we will be administering the official October ACT as a proctored test, which can serve as a diagnostic for students who wish to consider pursuing tutoring for the ACT in the new year. (https://www.westchesterprep.com/proctored-exams) For any students who took the October ACT and wish to take a proctored test on December 13th, we can administer one of the tests from the Official ACT Prep Guide 2025-2026.
While we have provided some ACT tutoring this fall for students who feel strongly that the Digital SAT is not well suited to their skillset, we have done so with a significant disclaimer regarding the dearth of updated official material. The novel, much needed data from the October exam release— combined with our internal research and production of proprietary material— make us fully confident that we can provide our typical stellar tutoring services to students who wish to prepare for the ACT in the new year. The aforementioned disclaimer still applies: uncertainty and volatility will inevitably come along with the first few administrations of a new exam (the Digital SAT is still receiving tweaks 18 months after its release; College Board even went so far as to remove the first three Digital SAT practice tests they released from their Bluebook app because they were no longer fully characteristic of the exam). Nevertheless, we have worked and continue to work diligently to prepare to tutor this exam and are excited to support students endeavoring to tackle this new challenge. Happy Autumn to all!
Remember to enjoy all of the colorful nature that New York and New England have to offer!
Haley
Tutoring Manager @ westchesterprep.com
