Dozens of students on campus are scheduled to take Saturday’s ACT, but starting in September 2020, students will be able to retake certain sections of the exam to improve their score rather than having to retake the entire exam. 

“They might think, ‘Why do I have to sit through and take all these tests again if I only need to improve my math score?” ACT spokesman Ed Colby said in an article in the New York Times. “We’re trying to save them time. We’re trying to save them money.”

For juniors and seniors, improving one or two sections could decrease the amount of stress placed on students.

“I think it’s a great idea because kids won’t have to drain themselves on the other sections,” junior Sydney Zornig said via text. “That’ll cause them to do better on that specific one.”

Not getting the opportunity to utilize this advantage, senior Christian Ahn isn’t bothered by the change even though he will not benefit from it. 

“I’m honestly not irritated because I understand that progress, in this case how the ACT chooses to test, means that some people won’t be given the same perks as others,” he said via text. “Our class didn’t get to have the ability to retest a single part, but we have experienced the benefits of other things like not having a whole vocab section on the SAT which those in the past did have to do.”

Despite some people arguing that this change will only benefit richer families that can throw a lot of money into retakes, admissions consultant for Signet Education in Cambridge, Mass. Joshua Mauro thinks that overall it will reduce stress.

“In my experience, students taking individual sections do drastically better than when they sit for the full exam,” Mauro said in an article in the New York Times. “I see that as a way to reduce anxiety.”