Kids today are taking a totally different SAT and a new study says it might be less rigorous

The SAT isn’t asking kids the same vocabulary and reading questions that previous generations had to answer, per a new study — leading some to believe that the test has gotten easier.Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy found that the SAT has de-emphasized vocabulary, made reading passages shorter, and eliminated certain forms of reading questions since the 1980s.It’s yet another indication that our academic standards — and what we expect of students — are declining.As kids spend less time reading and studying and more time scrolling, we’re lowering the bar to accommodate their lack of academic excellence.The study, which was commissioned by Thomas Aquinas College, found “extensive modifications to the SAT reading section over the past four decades.” Researchers found that the changes “diminish the emphasis on the students’ ability to read and analyze difficult texts.”In comparing 2026 practice tests with those from 1980 and 1987, the researchers found that passages were less than a third of their former length and that vocabulary questions requiring independent knowledge of a word’s meaning had dropped from 60 questions per test to just 10.They also found that questions testing students’ argumentative and persuasive reading skills had been almost entirely replaced by expository questions, and that kids were no longer being given tests that assumed prior knowledge on the part of the reader.

Instead, the passages today reveal their meaning through contextual clues.Apparently, in 2026, it’s too much to ask a kid to read a long passage, to be familiar with important references — or even to know vocabulary words. “The makers of the SAT seem to believe that the ability to tackle long and complex literary works isn’t an important skill for college students anymore,” John Goyette, Vice President of Thomas Aquinas College, said in a statement.“Sadly, given the state of modern higher education, they’re pro...