Changes to the Optional Writing Portion of the ACT

Effective September 2015, the makers of the ACT made changes to the optional writing subtest. In addition to adjusting the scoring from the old 12-point scale to a new 36 point scale, the prompt now asks the students to respond to three different positions on a given topic.

Here is more information directly from the source:

http://www.actstudent.org/writing/enhancements/