e been some accusations (based on the early announcement) that these revisions amounted to dumbing down the SAT, anyone who tries to claim that with respect to the essay is clearly high. This essay assignment will be unquestionably more demanding and will tap a wider range of skills than the current essay. Preliminarily, I'd also say that the accusation is mistaken across the board, but I'll tackle that point--especially as it relates to changes in vocabulary testing--in a later post.