I loved the rarefied vocabulary words and, sad to say, thoroughly enjoyed taking both the SAT (7th grade and high school) and the GRE. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had a terrible cold when taking the high school SAT, but I digress.
I help students get used to what to expect for standardized exams (like the MCAT) as part of my job. I have always liked that the difficult words were something you couldn't just learn by studying a list; that doesn't convey the subtleties of meaning you learn by reading. I'm all for making sure that students know important, useful words (like synthesis), but I just don't see how removing those rarified words won't make it easier for students to be rewarded for test prep.
I often work with students who have a lot of ability but may be the first in their family to go to college and lack resources for all of the expensive test prep (which is why I help them, because it isn't actually my job and I don't get paid). I would love to see more opportunities for those who are disadvantaged by not having access to test prep or familiarity with the culture of applications, but I'm just not convinced from the descriptions I've read that these changes will accomplish that.
I am not a native speaker of English. Actually my native language has the longest distance from English linguistically. You all probably can take a guess. But I prepared GRE by memorizing a book of words. I got 96% in the verbal section and I am pretty sure I got all the reading question correctly.
Since I only came to the US for graduate school. I never took the SAT. But most of my friends who took the GRE with me found the math section laughably easy. It was hard for us to believe that any graduate program thinks that is an effective screening tool. Everybody got 800. I only got 790 and was laughed at. I did get 800 in the analytical section, which most people who prepared with me found it hard or harder.
