IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT announced today it has cancelled all December 2020 and February 2021 international test administrations for the ACT test, due to new COVID-19 testing procedures and other changes necessary to navigate safe testing.
Students who have already registered for the December or February administrations have been notified of their options to request a refund or request a test date and/or test center change, free of charge, to one of the five remaining test administrations for the 2020-2021 school year.
To access up-to-date information, additional international test date options, and other frequently asked questions, please visit: http://global.act.org/.
As students and educators head “back to school” (virtually or otherwise), COVID-19 continues to concern us all.
Since our lives will continue to be impacted by the pandemic, we’ve put together a helpful landing page for customers and stakeholders that will house the most up-to-date information about testing during COVID-19.
This page will be updated on a regular basis, based on customer and stakeholder feedback.
I want you to know that we’re still listening, learning, and actively responding to your questions, comments, and issues.
We’re here to help you
We’ll keep adding sites and seats to help you get the score you need.
In case you weren’t aware, school districts and ACT State Organizations members (our grassroots network of education and workforce advocates) can sign up their schools to test on a national test date. Schools that may not be learning in-person (or that have COVID-19 restrictions on who can enter school buildings) can sign up to become an unlisted test center to test only their students on a national test date. This option provides students with a familiar location, close to home. Also, districts, through our District Testing program can offer a weekday ACT test experience for their students.
As it stands right now, we have tens of thousands of seats still available across the nation for our September test dates, with testing planned in all 50 states and 1700+ test centers. Of course, changes in COVID-19 conditions will likely affect capacity in specific locations. Testing decisions—promoting the health and safety of students and staff—will continue to be made by test coordinators, with input from local public health officials and based on CDC guidelines.
Communicating Test Center Changes and Cancellations
This week, we will begin to communicate cancellations and test center changes to students whose registrations have changed due to site cancellations, closures, and capacity limitations. Students will receive updates via email and should check our test center cancellations and reschedule page, as well as their MyACT web accounts to print an updated admission ticket. Those who are currently scheduled to test on their scheduled date, at their scheduled test center, will also receive an email from us.
We’re listening and responding
We’ve been receiving unprecedented customer care requests and social media inquiries. We are working now to add additional staff to our social media channels and customer support contact center to better support you.
Visit our dedicated landing page to learn about testing during COVID-19 and check out our FAQs for answers to questions about registration, MyACT, scores, and more.
Our priority is to promote the safety of students and staff and we will continue to update our social distancing guidelines to adhere to CDC and local public health guidelines. I can tell you that a face covering requirement will be in place for all examinees (other than for those that require an exemption for health reasons) at all national test centers beginning with our September test dates. We will be providing more guidance and information about what that means for test center staff and students, in the coming days.
Learn More in a Facebook Live Q&A with Me
Please join me for a Facebook Live Q&A, co-hosted by parent group, Grown & Flown on Wednesday, August 26 at 8 p.m. eastern to answer your most pressing questions about testing during COVID-19.
My teams continue to work day and night to help you earn an ACT score and serve you along your path to education and workplace success. Thank you for your patience and support as we learn and grow together, through this difficult time.
Dear ACT Community, I have heard from many frustrated parents and students over the last few weeks expressing concerns about securing a seat for fall ACT testing, complications with the new MyACT registration system, and an inability to easily access our support team. I fully understand these difficulties have added stress and anxiety to a time already filled with uncertainty, and for that I sincerely apologize.
We have not delivered a customer experience that I am proud of. However, we are continuing to overcome the challenges and volatility of the COVID-19 pandemic so that we can offer testing opportunities for as many students as possible, following CDC and local public health guidelines to promote safety. We’re doing this because we are committed to helping students navigate their college and career pathways. The ACT team is literally working around the clock to address your concerns, and I’d like to share more information about what has occurred and what we’re doing to improve the experience of engaging with ACT going forward.
Test centers and cancellations
COVID-19 has challenged nearly every part of our lives, and testing is no exception. ACT relies on local test sites and staff to host and manage tests for students. As the pandemic surged, we had many cancellations where school boards and public health officials were forced to make hard decisions to close school buildings and testing centers. As those decisions were made and communicated to us, often right up until test day, we attempted to relay those changes to registered students, but our communications were inconsistent, and we did not inform all students in a timely manner. We recognize how disruptive test center closures are, and we are implementing significant communication enhancements to ensure we provide accurate, timely, and actionable information if test centers close for COVID-19 or any other local situation.
MyACT site challenges
For many months (pre COVID-19) we had planned to launch MyACT in July 2020 as an enhanced experience for students to register and view scores. We tested the system at levels four times above any previous high-water mark of student volume and activity. Unfortunately, the site was flooded by extraordinarily high demand for registration after test dates and seat capacity were impacted due to COVID-19. This caused technical issues for users. After briefly launching MyACT the morning of July 27, we were forced to bring the system down and prepare for a relaunch on August 3.
The surge of students trying to register and re-register coupled with the MyACT issues brought about an unprecedented volume of requests coming into our customer care teams. We were not able to handle the deluge of these support requests, and many customers experienced long wait times.
I know this has been extremely frustrating for parents and students. It’s also been extremely frustrating and disheartening to me and the entire ACT team, whose mission is to support students in their efforts to successfully navigate college and career pathways. For weeks, we have been working nonstop to improve the experience of engaging with ACT, and here’s what you can expect from us ahead:
MyACT is open for 2020 and 2021 test date registrations
Please keep in mind, we remain at the mercy of COVID-19 and will keep students' health at the forefront of all decision-making. When testing sites are forced to close, you will receive an email from us notifying you of the closure and providing you with a list of options for re-registration or refund. Instructions will come directly to your email.
July 18 ACT scores
Those of you waiting for test scores from July 18 should expect multiple choice scores to come by August 31, 2020. The first round of scores became available August 5, and another round will be released each week through August 31. The majority of multiple choice scores are released within 2-3 weeks of the test date. Please note that essay scoring and other quality control processes can take up to 8 weeks.
Expanding customer care and communications
We are adding staff to our customer care call center teams, cross training existing staff to help respond to the backlog of messages and streamlining how and when we communicate closures and new test opportunities.
Adding additional test sites in high-demand areas
We’ve been analyzing which states have been hardest hit by COVID-19 test cancellations. In those states, we are working to develop “pop up” test sites that could add as many as 10,000 additional seats on existing national test dates. We are also training ACT team members to deploy as test coordinators if those local teams are unable to serve. Please know that these sites will not necessarily be available in MyACT, as we will hold some capacity for those displaced by future cancellations and closures.
Proactive & ongoing engagement with test sites
We have scaled up our outreach to local test centers and are checking in with them regularly to monitor the likelihood of cancellation. By flagging potential issues early, ACT can help to supply resources to keep a site open that might have otherwise closed. And, where closures happen, we aim to learn of these earlier to communicate options to students.
We’re listening and I’m here for you
I want to reiterate that I understand how difficult this experience has been. ACT is a mission-driven organization founded to help students demonstrate their achievements and open doors of opportunity. When we have missteps in our ability to serve that mission, it hits me to the core. I give you my pledge that we will not rest until we have explored all available options for students to earn an ACT score and to receive throughout a caring, supportive experience.
Many parents and students have reached out to me personally across many channels. The best way to reach me is at my ACT email account: janet.godwin@act.org. If I do not answer your question directly, please know that I forward every question to the appropriate people at ACT to respond to your needs. Please also look for updates on act.org, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. And remember, all cancellation information will be sent directly to you via email.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate these tough and unprecedented times. I can say with certainty that we have learned from the experiences this summer and the last few weeks, and we are improving. We remain committed to our mission and will do everything we can to ensure students have every opportunity to achieve success.
MyACT, our registration site for students, officially reopened Monday, August 3 at 10 a.m. CT. You can find a list of all upcoming national test dates—including our three new national test dates for the fall—here.
We’ve been listening and working to address your unique situations related to the ACT test registration experience. We’re here to help you navigate your path forward!
Below is list of common topics you’ve been asking about, and how we’re addressing them.
ACT Customer Support
We know you have questions about MyACT, your test registration, and scores, and we are working as quickly as we can to address each unique case. Please know that we are experiencing record phone and email volumes and are in the process of securing more customer support to help with this influx. Please be patient with us and know that we are listening and actively responding to your inquiries.
Prioritizing Seniors
The senior class of 2021 is most in need of an ACT score, especially as spring and summer testing events were cancelled or closed due to COVID-19. We’re making every attempt to help seniors in need of a score and ask underclassmen to be a buddy to seniors and consider registering for December or spring 2021 test dates.
To the best of our ability, class of 2020 and 2021 students who had their April, June, and/or July test date cancelled have been placed in seats at sites that are currently open.
Some students in this category could not be automatically registered for a few reasons, including
If you requested a refund from April, June or July, your registration record was removed from our system so we were unable to automatically register you, as we migrated to a new registration site after the July 18 test date.
If we couldn’t place you in a seat that was within 350 miles of your home address, we did not. Note: We are continuing to increase testing space for fall test dates and waiting to hear back from test center coordinators to add seats to MyACT. We encourage students to check back in MyACT as seats will continue to be added.
If there were technical issues with your account information, like duplicate email addresses for multiple accounts.
Please note: From a technological standpoint, we could not prioritize registration or our queuing system for seniors so they could register ahead of other classes. We sincerely wish we could have.
Test Center Location Mismatch
Due to a data mapping error encountered in our new MyACT system, some students experienced a situation where the test center listed on their admissions ticket was different than their selected test center. We’re working to fix all instances of this mismatch to ensure that all registrations are reserved in the intended test center. Once this is fixed, students can find their assigned test location by logging into MyACT. We’ll also follow up by email to affected students.
Note: We have pulled the mismatched test sites from MyACT so this cannot occur for other students.
July Scores
Students looking to access their scores from the July 18 national test date will be able to view scores as they begin to be released starting August 5. While most scores are available within 2-3 weeks of the test date, some scores can take longer to become available. If you received an email saying your July scores are available but you don’t see them in your account, you may have accidentally created a new account in MyACT instead of migrating your old one. See below for info on how to migrate your old account and what to do if you chose the wrong path. If you migrated your account correctly and still can’t see your scores, you may be part of a group of students who received an email about their scores being ready to view, but the scores have not been loaded into MyACT. We are in the process of loading those scores and they will be available in MyACT on the next score release date, which is Wednesday, August 12. Please note, there are no issues with your scores.
Authentication Issues
Some students have encountered issues in authenticating their accounts when creating or migrating their MyACT account.
If you have selected to verify your account via email, please first check your “junk” or “spam” email folder. If you do not see the verification email in either folder, please confirm your email is correct and resend the validation.
If you selected to verify via SMS message and you do not receive a message, please select to email the verification as an alternative.
If you were in the process of verifying your account on Monday, July 27 prior to the MyACT system being pulled down for maintenance, you can resend an email verification using the link in your original email. If the SMS message verification was selected that day, please contact us for agent assistance in verifying your account.
Account Migration Issues
Some customers have experienced issues in migrating or creating accounts in our new MyACT system. We have found the most common root cause of this issue to be the selection of alternate user paths. In order to streamline migration, three user paths are available:
If you had previously logged in to our Student Web Services portal, please select “I have a student web account and need to update to MyACT.”
If you took an ACT test through a state or district testing program and have a score but have not logged in to an ACT system previously, please select “I have scores from an ACT test, but don’t yet have an account.”
If you are brand new to ACT, please select “I have not taken the ACT before and am creating an account for the first time.”
If you have already created a MyACT account and your previous account information does not appear after login, it is possible a new account was created in error or there was an error in migration. If you do experience this issue, please contact us for agent assistance in merging accounts.
Generic Password Reset
We are aware that some students have been experiencing issues with resetting the password for their MyACT account, specifically those who have recently changed their email or mobile phone associated with their MyACT account.
We have resolved this issue as of 8/21. Now that we have, we are asking that you try the below steps one more time. These steps should solve your problem:
Go to MyACT.org and click the forgot password link above the password field on the sign in screen.
In the forgot password popup please put the email address associated with your account as the email address and click the reset password button. A password reset code will be sent to your email or mobile phone.
Input the code and a new password into the password reset screen that appears on MyACT.
After resetting the password you will be redirected to the MyACT sign in page.
Enter in the same email with your new password.
Now you should be logged into your MyACT account, and you should be able to access your data.
If you have taken these steps, and still cannot view your scores, please see our Contact Us page for the best way to get assistance.
Credit Card Form Issues
Some customers encountered an error in submitting credit card information during the checkout process. This issue has been resolved and we have not seen any new reports of customers encountering this issue. If you continue to experience credit card issues, please clear your browser cache or attempt to checkout in an incognito window.
Connectivity/Network Issues
Some customers encountered our site maintenance page stating the site was down for maintenance after we had re-opened MyACT for registration. This was a result of internet service providers caching, or saving, a version of the page to speed up user experience. This issue has been resolved. If you continue to run into this issue, please clear your browser cache or load the site in an incognito window.
Vouchers/Fee Waivers/Credits Not Appearing in MyACT Account
Some customers have experienced issues in rescheduling tests from previous test registrations using an ACT Fee Waiver or a voucher. This issue is resolved through one of two user paths:
If you were able to successfully migrate your account into MyACT, you will see previous registrations on your record. Upon entering that previous registration record, you may select to complete a Test Date Change. This change of test date to a fall test administration is free for you.
If you were not able to successfully migrate your account to MyACT and created a new account in the system, you will not see any previous registrations. If this is the case, please contact us for agent assistance in merging accounts. If you are unable to contact ACT Customer Care prior to requiring a registration, you may register following the standard user process and request a refund at a later date.
