--- title: SAT Quiz: Can You Answer Questions From the Original Test? description: On June 23, 1926, the first version of the SAT was given to 8,000 students, with 315 questions focusing on vocabulary and math. canonical: https://time.com/4372031/sat-anniversary-original-questions-quiz/ author: David Johnson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-20T15:19:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:26.339Z article:section: History og:title: Can You Answer These Questions From the Original SAT? og:description: The standardized test turns 90 on June 23 og:url: https://time.com/4372031/sat-anniversary-original-questions-quiz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can You Answer These Questions From the Original SAT? twitter:description: The standardized test turns 90 on June 23 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Can You Answer These Questions From the Original SAT? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=496d8c76-dc6d-42d7-89f2-eea6d404a648&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=496d8c76-dc6d-42d7-89f2-eea6d404a648&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Do You Know These SAT Words? [Watch (HLS stream): Do You Know These SAT Words?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2mc1HLdf.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2016-02-16. MONEY staffers sat down and tried to guess. Some got it right. Some...not so much._ by [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Jun 20, 2016 3:19 PM UTC by [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Jun 20, 2016 3:19 PM UTC Ninety years ago this week, college-bound students took the very first [SAT](http://time.com/3905719/the-new-sat). The College Board created the Scholastic Aptitude Test to give universities a uniform way of evaluating applicants and to simplify the admissions process for students. On June 23, 1926, the first version of the SAT was given to 8,040 students, and the following year it assumed its now familiar form, with separate verbal and math tests. In 1934, Harvard adopted the SAT with the goal of boosting the diversify of its student body beyond elite private school graduates, and the test soon became a teenage rite of passage. The [original 1926 test](http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/681564-1926-sat.html) lasted 97 minutes and consisted of 315 questions focusing on vocabulary and math. TIME selected eight of these questions for the quiz below, at varying levels of difficulty. While many first believed the SAT would increase socioeconomic diversity at colleges, some critics of the test have said that it now does the opposite. In 2014, when the [Wall Street _Journal_ reported](http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/10/07/sat-scores-and-income-inequality-how-wealthier-kids-rank-higher/) that students in higher income brackets outscored students in lower income brackets on every section of the test. And some admissions offices appear to be listening to the critics, making the SAT and the other leading standardized test, the ACT, optional for applicants. In October 2015, [TIME reported](http://time.com/4057309/standardized-testing/) that “200 of the roughly 2,968 degree-granting four-year colleges in the U.S. no longer require the SAT or the ACT, while 600 more have diminished their role in the admission process.” In an effort to stay relevant and combat criticism, the College Board rolled out a [revamped SAT in March of 2016](http://time.com/4237276/sat-2016-practice-questions-college-board/), with free Khan Academy prep courses available to all. But the biggest change—test questions more closely aligned with [high school classwork](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/education/major-changes-in-sat-announced-by-college-board.html?%5Fr=2)—marks the SAT’s potential shift toward becoming a [state school assessment exam](http://time.com/4057309/standardized-testing/), required by high schools to evaluate student progress. That may ensure it remains in classrooms for decades to come. ## Transcript [ SOUND ] Might be, like Antediluvian means before the Flood. And it just means really old. Adumbrate. Adumbrate? Adumbrate? Maybe to shorten? [ NOISE ] How this exercise makes me feel. [ LAUGH ] Very adumbrate. [ NOISE ] Impecunious. It's important to sound these out. [ NOISE ] Cupidity is Like greediness. Like, you know, people on Wall Street. Mm- hm. Impecunious, and I want to say it means dishonest or shady in some way. Puerile means like childish. Legerdemain. Is that French? What is that? Assiduous. It means like paying close attention. Like Titter. Sounds like Twitter, but has nothing to do with Twitter. Kids have to do it. So much stupider than I used to be. A blunderbuss is like one of those guns that the Pilgrims had. With like a wide like [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ SOUND ] It's like a musket. [ SOUND ] Why do you know that? Blunderbus. I know that Jack White had an album called Blunderbus? But that's not gonna be it. A blunderbus is a person who makes a lot of mistakes maybe? Who like is clumsy and makes a lot of blunders. [ SOUND ] Sagacity? Sagacity? Does that mean wisdom? [ NOISE ] Wise, wisdom. [ NOISE ] Harangue is just to yell at somebody or to sort of man- splain. Noisy, attacking speech. It's man- splaining. [ SOUND ] I promise I paid attention in school, I just. I got into college. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] Carping means like complaining about stuff, basically. What we do in the newsroom all day long. Antediluvian, so ante means. Before. Diluvian might be, I'm gonna go with a person who existed before the flood, from Noah. Yes, before the flood in the Bible, or old- fashioned. 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