The August 2025 SAT Vocab Survey + Quiz - US Version (Round 2)

With the help of reports from Reddit's r/SAT, I’ve compiled a list of the most common and challenging vocabulary from the August 2025 US SAT. I've put these into a quiz format for students and parents to challenge themselves. Good luck!

SAT Vocabulary August 2025 US - Round 2 - Warm-up Reading Passage

Instructions: Read this passage carefully before taking your quiz. All 15 vocabulary words from August 2025 US SAT Round 2 appear in context. Pay attention to how each word is used naturally in the story.

The Art Authentication Crisis

Dr. Sarah Chen had always felt a natural affinity for Renaissance art, but her latest case challenged everything she thought she knew about authentication. The painting before her—allegedly a lost Caravaggio—presented problems analogous to the most complex puzzles she'd encountered in her twenty-year career as an art historian.

Multiple experts had been called to attest to the work's authenticity, yet their conclusions varied wildly. Chen approached the investigation with characteristic circumspection, knowing that a wrong attribution could cost the museum millions or, worse, damage her professional reputation irreparably.

The painting's provenance showed a troubling diminution in documentation during the 1940s—precisely when Nazi art looting was at its peak. If authentic, this Caravaggio would represent the epitome of artistic achievement from the master's final period. However, several troubling details served as a harbinger of potential forgery.

The brushwork displayed idiosyncratic techniques that seemed inconsistent with Caravaggio's known methods. Chen suspected the previous authenticator might have been something of a sophist, using clever but ultimately misleading arguments to support a profitable attribution. She decided to abridge her initial report, focusing only on the most critical evidence while she conducted additional research.

The museum director took Chen's cautious assessment as a personal affront, having already announced the acquisition to major donors. Some board members began to begrudge the substantial resources invested in the piece, while Chen struggled to compose herself during increasingly tense meetings.

The art world's competitive atmosphere had grown increasingly inimical to careful scholarship, with financial pressures threatening to supersede academic rigor. Chen realized this case would define not just her career, but the integrity of art authentication itself.