Updated: September 2026. Our original post on this topic ran in August 2024, before the ACT’s Enhanced format had fully rolled out. Since the test itself has changed—and rollout is now essentially complete for national testing—it’s worth revisiting the timing strategy with current information.
The Core Strategy Still Holds
The fundamental advice from our original post remains sound: take both the SAT and ACT once in the spring of junior year to determine which format suits you better, then plan additional test dates in the fall of senior year if you need to raise your score for Early Decision or Early Action applications.
What’s Different Now: The Enhanced ACT Changes the Math a Bit
Since our last post, the ACT rolled out major format changes—a shorter core test and an optional Science section—in phases: April 2025 for the national Saturday online version, September 2025 for the national Saturday paper version, and spring 2026 for school-day testing. By this point, virtually every student testing nationally is on the Enhanced format, so this is simply the ACT experience now, not a future consideration.
What this means practically for timing:
- The shorter test (roughly 2 hours core, vs. nearly 3 hours previously) means less fatigue on test day, which may make a same-day double booking or a tighter retest turnaround more manageable than it used to be.
- If you’re deciding whether to include the optional Science section, decide this before you register, based on your target schools’ preferences—not on test day itself.
A Suggested Junior Year Timeline
| When | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Fall, Junior Year | Take the PSAT (offered through your school) as a low-stakes baseline. Optionally, ACT suggests an extra early test date for students who want a head start. |
| Winter/Spring, Junior Year | Take both the SAT and ACT once each, ideally a few weeks apart, to determine which format fits you better. |
| Summer After Junior Year | Review your scores against your target schools’ middle-50% ranges. Decide whether a retest is worth your time, and which test format to focus on. |
| Early Fall, Senior Year | Take your final test date if you’re applying Early Decision or Early Action, since scores need to arrive before those earlier deadlines. |
| Fall/Winter, Senior Year | One additional retest is reasonable if you’re applying Regular Decision and want one more attempt to hit a target score. |
Don’t Forget: Check Policies Before You Plan Around Testing at All
Before committing serious time to a testing timeline, revisit our companion post on test-optional, test-blind, and test-required policies. Testing requirements have shifted substantially since 2024, with several selective schools reinstating requirements while others—including California’s UC and Cal State systems—remain fully test-blind. Your testing timeline should be built around your actual target list’s current policies, not a general assumption that “everyone tests.”
How Many Times Should You Actually Test?
There’s no universal number, but a reasonable general guideline is two to three total attempts across the SAT or ACT (not both, once you’ve picked your preferred format), spread across junior spring and early senior fall. Testing more than three or four times typically produces diminishing returns and adds unnecessary stress without meaningfully moving your score.
The Bottom Line
The overall timing strategy from our original post still works well: test both formats junior spring, pick your stronger one, and leave room for one focused retest in early senior fall if you’re applying under an early deadline. What’s changed is simply that the ACT itself is now shorter and more flexible than it was when we first wrote about this—which, if anything, makes testing twice in one season slightly more manageable than it used to be.
This post was updated in September 2026 to reflect the now-complete rollout of the Enhanced ACT format. For full details on what changed in the test itself, see our companion post, Digital SAT and Enhanced ACT: What’s True Now.