The answer is “Not much, if any.”
In a June 18 op-ed, Michael Torres, the policy director for the Classical Learning Test (CLT), revealed that in 2024 the College Board made sweeping changes to the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) to “dumb them down.”
Among the “improvements”: the Reading and Writing section of the test was shortened from between a required 500-750 words to 25-150 words, or approximately the length of a social media post. The College Board’s reasoning? The ability to read longer passages, it insists, is “not an essential prerequisite for college.”
The exam, the Board explains, now “operates more efficiently when choices about what test content to deliver are made in small rather than larger units.” This goal required, for example, eliminating passages from the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to prevent the unfair penalizing of “students who might have struggled to connect with the subject matter.”
Yeah, you wouldn’t want to prevent a student who can’t comprehend our Founding documents from getting a college degree. Accordingly, the optional essay was also eliminated entirely, presumably because not being able to organize one’s thoughts and communicate them clearly is no longer a prerequisite for being regarded as intelligent, able, and wise.
Torres accused the College Board of “catering to students’ declining performance and social-media-induced attention-control issues.”
Ya think?
When I was a student at a now thoroughly rotted Iconic College That Shall Not Be Named, we were often told that it was virtually impossible to flunk out. As one professor put it, “When you were admitted here, we concluded that you were worthy of a degree, and since the school is infallible, nothing you do once you’re here can convince us otherwise. Your invaluable credential is that you were originally deemed worthy of this college’s name next to yours.”
When the standardized test system is this forgiving, what do degrees signify now?
Oh…I must point out that the Campus Reform report that alerted me to this revolting development was written by a member of the Liberty University Class of 2025, and contained this passage: “The math portion of the exam has faced modifications, as well. In addition to students being offered less questions and the same amount of time to answer them, they may now use a calculator for the entire portion.”
It’s fewer questions, kid, not “less.” But I’m not surprised that no one has taught you that….
Post Script: You know whose analysis of this matter would be valuable? Curmie’s! I wonder whatever happened to that guy.
Ethics Alarms 
RE: Fewer and less.
This aggravates me to no end. We have “journalists” and professional writers misusing both as well as using the word lay when lie is is the correct term. These professionals are a large part of the problem because they reinforce bad grammar. I am sure some will say that language “evolves” which is merely a convenient way of saying there are no wrong ways to express oneself. It’s a cop out among English teachers when they use that excuse.
I guess it is just me, but using the wrong word rubs me the wrong way, like trying to say “we was.”
I want more money. This means less work for us. You have less children than I do.
The first two sound right; the third rankles. “Less questions” also rankles, and I cannot believe that was not caught by anyone.
Constantly reduce the knowledge and academic skills needed to enter college, what could go wrong?
Oh wait, we were specifically warned about this kind of thing 25 years ago…
Time has shown us that Iserbyt really wasn’t a complete lunatic, but she was certainly publicly tarred as being one; after all, how dare she speak out publicly to directly challenge what was going on. The preferred education narrative was dominating education system and changes were being rammed down the throat of the public across the United States in the waning years of the 20th century. Iserbyt foresaw what the outcome of the forced changes would be and she was compelled to share her prophetic insight and warn the public.
Iserbyt knew the signs to watch out for, she saw this coming, she warned us, we didn’t listen and now we’re suffering the 21st century consequences of of 20th century ignorance and we have psychological snowflakes and morons in leadership positions across the United States steering us into the oblivion of totalitarianism.
Constantly reduce the knowledge and academic skills needed to enter college, what could go wrong?
A society full of morons with participation trophy degrees that can’t do anything productive in, or for, our society; that’s what can go wrong. The worthless wall hanging degrees won’t have any more social value than this one…
The unemployed morons can display their failed participation certificate equivalents with honor to flaunt it at plumber they’re paying $150 and hour to fix their dripping faucet.
As a person with knowledge of the subject, I will unequivocally confirm that The Gotch Academy of Rhetorical Excellence©™® will continue ferret out and identify abject imbecility wherever it exists, and will publicly invoke The Gotch’s Razor for those who portray their comically idiotic twaddle as intellectual discourse!
PWS