ACT Enhancements

The ACT has made major structural changes to the exam that will be implemented in the coming months. The ACT will now have 44 fewer questions and students will receive more time to answer each question. The length of the test in total will be reduced to 125 minutes rather than 195 minutes as in previous years. Students will also have the option to opt out of the science section unlike previous years.

Math and English portions of the exam will be adjusted slightly. For math questions, the ACT will be eliminating a response option from each question. Options that are rarely chosen or of poor quality will be removed from the exam, leaving four potential answers rather than five. Additionally, when questions contain a graphic, answer options that can be easily eliminated by looking at the image will be removed from the test. This is designed to match the format of other assessments and improve the test-taking experience for students.

During the English section, students will be provided with clear instructions for each question. Previously, portions of text would be underlined or numbered to denote which phrases pertain to each grammar and language question. However, no instructions were given for each individual question, so students needed to reference the instructions at the beginning of the section. This will no longer be the case, as the ACT will provide instructions for each question such as “which choice makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable?” followed by the answer choices. Additionally, the “No Change” options will be bolded so they are easier to see. These changes are being introduced to promote clarity for all students.

ACT enhancements will begin going into effect starting in April of 2025 for students taking the exam online. By September of 2025, all students taking the exam on paper or online will receive these benefits as well. The adjustments will be reflected in all schools and districts by spring of 2026.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

CPS Application Result Dates Announced

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has released information regarding application result dates and wait-listing for students applying to choice and selective enrollment schools. Applicants can receive up to one offer for choice and selective enrollment programs. Students applying for high schools (9th grade) will receive their results on March 14th while elementary students from grades K-8 will receive their results on April 11th.

Once results have been released, a rolling waitlist for non-admitted students will be set up.  Students offered placement at schools will be given a deadline to decide at which point students on the waitlist will be offered spots accordingly.

Additional deadlines for students who have not yet tested should be noted. Selective enrollment students should request a rescheduled date by February 2nd. The final SEES testing date for 1st-8th graders is February 16th and Kindergarten students will have until February 21st.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

HSPT Information for Chicago Students

8th grade students looking to apply to Catholic high schools are required to take the High School Parochial Test (HSPT). This year, the exam will take place on Saturday, December 7th at 8:00 AM. Students will take the exam at their 1st choice Catholic high school (Loyola, St. Ignatius, Depaul, or Fenwick). Students can only apply to one of these schools. If a student is not admitted to one of these, they should have a second choice (unmentioned school) prepared. Any student pursuing a scholarship opportunity is required to sit for the exam at the corresponding school.

The HSPT covers both math and verbal topics including verbal analogies, logic, verbal classifications, quantitative skills, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and language. The exam is composed of 298 questions and will be in multiple-choice format. The exam will take approximately two and a half hours to complete. Students should be prepared to solve all problems without the use of a calculator. However, they may use scratch paper for calculations.

Chicago Catholic schools that require HSPT scores include the following: Brother Rice High School, Carmel Catholic High School, Christ the King Jesuit High School Preparatory School, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep, De La Salle Institute, Depaul College Prep, Fenwich High School, St. Francis de Sales High School, Holy Trinity High School, St. Ignatius College Prep, Josephinum Academy, St. Laurence High School, Leo High School, Loyola Academy, Marian Catholic High School, Marist High School, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, Mount Carmel High School, Nazareth Academy, Notre Dame College Prep, Our Lady or Tepeyac High School, Saint Patrick High School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, St. Rita of Cascia High School, Trinity High School, Saint Viator High School, and Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Illinois Potentially Switching from SAT to ACT

Within the next year, Illinois may be switching from the SAT to ACT as it’s mandated state test. In the state of Illinois, all public high school students are required to pass a standardized college entrance exam to graduate. The Board of Education’s current contract with College Board requires 11th grade students to take the SAT and 9th and 10th grade students to take the PSAT. As this contract expires in June, it is likely the Board of Education will make the switch to the ACT for the 2024-2025 school year.

The state has begun negotiating a deal with ACT Inc. that will award the company a $53 million contract over the course of three years. If this deal is successful, it will be the first time the ACT is mandated for Illinois public school students since 2016. While the state is developing these contracts, the Chicago Board of Education recently renewed its contract with College Board for another two years. Therefore, Chicago public school students can expect to continue taking the SAT until 2026.

Some are dismayed by these potential changes, claiming the ACT does not align with current Illinois educational standards. Matthew Raimondi, a district employee, stated “that high school assessment is ultimately going to guide how teachers teach. Teachers are going to teach to the test you select. I urge you as board members to make sure you make the best decision to move to Illinois forward and not back to a test from the last century.” The state superintendent responded to this by assuring educators that whatever test is selected will align with the requisite learning standards.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator

kayley@testprepchicago.com

312-848-1266

Using GPTZero to Combat Plagiarism with ChatGPT

The use of ChatGPT for plagiaristic purposes has been the fear of many educators since the AI tool was released in November of 2022. To combat this issue, Princeton University student Edward Tian has created software he believes to be the solution. Tian’s app, GPTZero, was developed in December of 2022 when the coder took it upon himself to create an app that can determine if a body of text has been created by a human or AI. Tian created the app to protect individuals in the midst of a changing technological landscape stating, “I think it is important for people to bet on independent parties to build the safeguards for their technologies.”

The technology works by measuring two factors: perplexity and burstiness. Perplexity refers to the degree of randomness present in a text. Human-created work often uses language in a more chaotic, disorganized way than AI. Hence, the more random a body of text is, the more likely it is to be human-generated. Burstiness is the second factor that refers to the complexity and diversity of sentence and language structure within a text. AI-generated material is much more uniform in style than human-created text. When individuals write, they vary their structure which creates natural “bursts” throughout the writing. AI has not been able to effectively emulate this ability. Thus, using these mechanisms in tandem, GPTZero is able to effectively determine if a text is AI generated with 98% accuracy.

While 98% effective, many have criticized GPTZero for its inability to distinguish texts that are a mix of human and AI-created. Tian emphasizes the limitations of his app stating that he doesn’t want anyone “making definitive decisions” in regard to the app’s ability to predict AI-generated work. Tian simply seeks to preserve the integrity of authentic composition by thwarting ChatGPT’s potential misuse.

 Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266