FILE PHOTO: Students attend a lecture for the entrance exam for postgraduate studies at a hall in Jinan, Shandong Province, China, July 18, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS

(Reuters) - ACT Inc, the maker of the United States’ most popular college entrance exam, said on Thursday it has canceled the ACT exam scheduled for Saturday at some of its international test centers due to a breach of the test materials.

ACT, which has been the target of widespread cheating at overseas centers, has notified affected students, who will receive instructions on how to reschedule their test, a spokesman said.

ACT said it could not give specifics as to how the test materials were leaked because the incident was still under investigation.

The breach and cancellations were confined to specific international test centers, company spokesman Ed Colby added in an email.

Separately, ACT said it was busy working to reschedule some tests scheduled for Saturday in U.S. states such as Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, that are affected by hurricanes Harvey and now Irma.

“This has been a huge effort, and our goal has been to make sure that every single student in those impacted areas can cross the ACT test off their list of worries, as so many of them have much bigger issues to deal with now,” Colby said.

Would-be test-takers from countries including China, Thailand and Australia expressed outrage on social media over the international cancellations because the test, the first of the new school year, was to be used by high school seniors applying to colleges this fall.

The ACT and its rival, the SAT, are used by thousands of U.S. colleges to help choose among millions of student applicants. Both have been swamped by cheating abroad.

ACT, an Iowa City, Iowa-based nonprofit, has suffered major security setbacks in the past year. After the October sitting of the exam, ACT canceled scores for an unspecified number of students in Asia and Oceania on the writing section of the test because of a leak. Last June, the exam was canceled for all test takers in South Korea and Hong Kong due to another breach. </s> Sept 7 (Reuters) - ACT Inc, the maker of the United States' most popular college entrance exam, said on Thursday it has canceled the administration of the ACT exam scheduled for Saturday at some of its test centers due to a breach of the test materials.

ACT, which has been the target of widespread cheating at overseas centers, has notified affected students, who will receive instructions on how to reschedule their test, a spokesman said. (Reporting by John McCrank in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) </s> This Saturday's ACT has been called off at some international testing centers. An ACT spokesman said that the action was "due to a verified breach of the test materials," and that ACT would not be commenting further on the breach. He did say that those registered for the test have been notified and will receive information about rescheduling. The move by ACT follows unconfirmed reports on Reddit about the sale of the test in advance of its administration. The notice at right was posted to social media by some who received it. </s> As Hurricane Irma approaches Florida, residents are preparing for flooding and winds that can topple trees and knock out power lines.

But, many high schoolers have a more immediate concern: the ACT test, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 9.

Dozens of students tweeted at the ACT's account asking for clarification about what would happen with the test as many evacuated Florida.

"I need time to prepare for Irma (and, most importantly, the ACT Math Section!!!)!" one student wrote on the ACT subreddit earlier this week. "Also, I'd rather not waste a gallon of gas driving to my test center when the price of gas just went up to $3.25 per gallon when it was $2.59 yesterday!"

The organizers of the ACT test are working to reschedule the test at centers expected to be hit by Irma.

"We extend our thoughts to those impacted by Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma and hope that you are safe," a statement on the ACT test website reads. "We know that you may have a lot of things to worry about right now, and we don't want the ACT test to be one of them."

"Rest assured that we are working on rescheduling and relocating test centers impacted by the storm," the statement continues. "For those students who are impacted, we will work with you to address your individual situation."

However, some people have already taken matters into their own hands. One mother of a high school senior told Business Insider that she booked last-minute flights to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and had her daughter register to take the ACT at a test center there based on early reports of Irma's strength.

The ACT has a full list of sites that are rescheduling the test on its website, including test centers in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Columbia. You can read the full list here. </s> Illinois' scores for the ACT college entrance exam have increased statewide for 2017 as the number of students taking the test has dropped.

Students posted a 21.4 score across all four subjects on the exam. The statewide score is the highest in the last five years.

But while test scores are up, the number of test takers has dropped by about 21,500 since 2016.

ACT spokesman Ed Colby tells the Chicago Tribune that the decline in test takers has probably helped boost the statewide 2017 results. He says the results "likely include fewer students who were not preparing for college than previous years."

Illinois topped the national average of 21. The state also exceeded national averages on percentage of students considered college-ready by ACT in English, math, reading and science. </s> - Thousands of students around the world plan to skip school Friday to demand action on climate change.

A teenager in Sweden started the event and it's now spread to students in more than 100 countries.

That includes right here in Georgia where two events are planned in downtown Atlanta.

Organizers said the idea is to pressure leaders to take action sooner rather than later. </s> Some schools declared suspension of classes after subsequent earthquakes were recorded in Batangas and felt in neighboring provinces and Metro Manila on Saturday afternoon.

Effective 3:30 p.m., De La Salle University suspended its classes in all levels as well as office work at the Taft, Makati, and BGC campuses. Access to these campuses is constrained until further notice.

The University of Santo Tomas also suspended classes as of 3:50 p.m.

Far Eastern University followed, suspending classes in its Manila and Makati campuses and FEU Tech. IDL </s> STAFF and students from Melrose High School in Pearce have self-evacuated following a gas leak.

The school became aware of the gas leak at about 12.15pm.

ACT ESA is on site and ACT Education is aware of the incident. </s> In addition, construction and demolition work were banned for the next five days, Kejriwal said at a news conference called to announce emergency measures to protect the public from air pollution.

He cautioned that odd-even rationing for vehicles -- in which cars would only be allowed to operate on alternating days depending on their license plate numbers -- could be implemented if the situation does not improve soon.

More than 5,000 schools will be closed. The emergency measures follow a week of unusually high smog levels in the city, which many people blamed on the firecrackers and fireworks set off last Sunday night in celebration of Diwali.

The Air Quality Index from the US Embassy in Delhi measured the city's air quality at 999 at one point on Sunday, a level considered hazardous and more than three times the measured level of 300 in previous weeks.
Saturday's ACT U.S. college entrance exam test is cancelled at some of its international test centers because of leaks of test materials.