Enhanced ACT Math Vs Legacy ACT Math

Now that we have more official Enhanced ACTs, I can produce a better version of the chart that compares the current ACT to the old (“Legacy”) ACT:

I made this by tagging every question from every test, then running the tags through python scripts. I tried to organize the categories from left to right in roughly the order in which they’d be encountered in school: Pre-Algebra and Proportions are on the left, while Beyond Quadratics (things like matrices, vectors, and cubic functions) are on the right.

A few observations:

• There is less math from earlier grades now. Every category on the left side of the chart has either decreased significantly (Pre-Algebra + Area, Perimeter, Volume) or remained roughly the same (Powers, Basic Algebra).

• There is more advanced math. Quadratic Equations and Beyond Quadratics stand out, but all five on the right are higher.

• Systems appear almost twice as frequently as before. I hadn’t really noticed this (they still appear more frequently on SATs). We don’t have a lot of tests, so it’s possible this is a temporary increase.