My morning routine often includes the SAT Question of the Day; the mental exercise is not only fun (at least when your future doesn't ride on it), but also, I'm assuming, good for my brain. But I've begun to worry about the system, because it's too easy.
Mind you, I didn't find the Scholastic Aptitude Test easy when I took it in high school; I did quite well but not close to a perfect score (which was 1600 back then). What's more, I would expect to do better now, since I've had some 40 more years of experience since then. So I'm not really complaining that the questions are rarely challenging for me; what I find concerning is that they don't seem to be much of a challenge, period. The number of respondents who get the question right is almost always more than half, and often quite a bit more for the Verbal questions. People don't do as well on the Math questions, but still far better than I would expect for an exam that's supposed to be challenging our brightest high school students. I realize those who undertake the daily question are a self-selected population, which may explain their success.
Nonetheless, the level of difficulty still surprises me. I recall the SAT being interesting and even somewhat fun, but not a cakewalk by any means. It's true that I studied quite a bit more math after taking the test in 10th grade, but so far I've not seen a question requiring higher math—often they can be done with common sense and/or grinding through the multiple-choice responses
So, my questions: Has the SAT really become that much easier over the years? Is the Question of the Day deliberately taken from the easier parts of the test? Is the idea that our faculties decrease once we get out of school just a myth? Contrary to popular belief, is motherhood actually a challenging and stimulating profession that keeps the mind agile? I rather like those last two ideas.
