The ACT has been redesigned — it is now shorter, its science section is optional, and its Composite score covers only English, maths and reading. The digital SAT is unchanged. For UAE students applying to US universities, the SAT-vs-ACT decision is worth revisiting, with additional international ACT changes arriving from February 2026.
What Happened?
ACT has rolled out an enhanced version of its college-admissions test. The core test is now about two hours instead of roughly three — ACT describes it as around 70 minutes shorter with 44 fewer questions — achieved through shorter passages and fewer questions in each section. The headline change: the science section is now optional. The Composite score covers English, maths and reading only, while students who choose to sit science receive a separate science score and an overall STEM score.
The timing matters for where a student tests. According to ACT, the new Composite score has applied to all students since the September 2025 test, and additional enhancements for international test-takers — including fewer questions — begin in February 2026. Because the ACT is delivered online only at international test centres, students testing outside the US are already using the online format these changes apply to.
The other side of the decision has not moved. The digital SAT has been the same since its international rollout in 2023: two sections (Reading & Writing, and Maths), about 2 hours 14 minutes, scored 400–1600, delivered on College Board's Bluebook app with a multistage-adaptive design. So this is a change to one test, not both.
What This Means for UAE Families
Every year a large cohort of students leaves UAE schools for US universities — not only those in American-curriculum schools, but IB, A-Level and AP students who add the SAT or ACT to a US application. This change lands on all of them, and with a UAE-specific wrinkle: because the ACT is online-only at international centres, including in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE students are already testing in the enhanced format. The new Composite is in effect now, and the further structural changes arrive in February 2026 — so a student registering for an ACT this cycle is choosing a test that has just changed, while the digital SAT they would otherwise sit is the same one that has been available since 2023.
What the change does to the actual decision: for years, the ACT's dedicated science section was often the deciding factor — science-strong, fast-reading students leaned ACT, and students who disliked a timed science-reasoning paper leaned SAT. Now that science is optional and sits outside the Composite, that reasoning shifts. The ACT is shorter and no longer forces a science section, which genuinely changes who it suits. But one honest caution: individual universities decide whether they want the optional science or STEM score, so a student targeting competitive STEM, engineering or medical programmes should check each target university's stance rather than assume science no longer counts.
What this does not mean: both tests remain accepted by virtually all US universities, and many US institutions are still test-optional — for some applicants, neither score is required at all, so the first step is always to check each university's current testing policy. Nothing here is a reason to switch tests mid-preparation or to panic. For a Dubai student already carrying a demanding IB or A-Level timetable, the practical takeaway is narrower: the two tests are now more different from each other than they used to be — a shorter, science-optional ACT versus an adaptive digital SAT — so choosing well is worth a little more deliberation than it was when they were closer cousins.
What Should You Do?
If a US application is on the horizon, confirm the current test format and dates on the official ACT and College Board pages (linked below) rather than older summaries, and check the testing and science-score policy of each university on your child's shortlist — those policies, not the test change itself, decide what a student actually needs. Families registering for an international ACT should note the February 2026 timing for the additional enhancements.
The most reliable way to choose between the two is still to sit a short, timed diagnostic of each and compare — now more useful than ever, because the tests have genuinely diverged. Our SAT and ACT tutors in Dubai run diagnostics for both formats and prepare students in-home for whichever test fits them best.