New SAT gets real, ditches obscure words

New York

IN the new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), analysing a scatterplot chart on Florida manatees and citing evidence to back up answers will trump knowledge of arcane vocabulary.

Draft questions released on Wednesday by the College Board, owner of the US entrance exam, illustrate the scope of the test's first redesign since 2005. The new model, which will be implemented in 2016, aims to show students' mastery of concepts taught in high school rather than measure skills and words they might rarely or never use in real life.