Kevin Helmick

I am speechless. Thomas Aquinas College just dropped a study on the rigor of the new SAT. It compares the 1980/87 test with 2026. The findings should terrify every parent and teacher... Vocabulary has collapsed. Old SAT: 70.6% of questions tested vocab. New SAT: 15%. The old test forced students to know a wide range of words through analogies, antonyms, and sentence completions. The new test abandoned that. Most vocab questions now just ask students to fill in one blank from context. Reading passages also got radically shorter (average ~97 words vs 300–340). The new test uses short expository passages and hands you the necessary background knowledge inside the text. The older tests leaned much more heavily on argumentative and persuasive writing, assumed far more historical, scientific, and cultural knowledge, and penalized students who lacked it. This is a redefinition of what "college readiness" means. If you believe that kids should develop rigorous vocabulary, be capable of sustained reading, and possess background knowledge, I have bad news for you. The SAT no longer measures these. If you want a future where children can actually read difficult texts and construct complex arguments, the SAT must be replaced now. This cannot go on.