Why Are We Dumbing Down the SAT?

If words like 'penchant' and 'accost' are considered too difficult, then what, are we supposed to just say, if they can get through Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer, they're good to go?

It does seem like the result will be effectively grade inflation: having a fairly average high-school vocabulary will get you a high score, the same as kids who are highly literate.

I agree with The College Board and disagree with this article's author.

Learning obscure SAT words that aren't used either in academic writing or daily parlance is a waste of everyone's time and doesn't prove someone is better suited for college. It is just an arbitrary memorisation game.

If someone runs across a new word at the college level they can do what anyone does at any level and look it up. No big deal. Calling people who don't know the 1% most obscure words in the English dictionary "pretend readers" is just trolling for controversy.