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

SAT Vocabulary December 2025 US - Round 1 - Warm-up Reading Passage

Instructions: Read this passage carefully before taking your quiz. All 9 vocabulary words from December 2025 US SAT Round 1 appear in context. Pay attention to how each word is used naturally in the story.

The Policy Debate

When Senator Margaret Chen rose to address the chamber, her calm demeanor belied the intensity of the battle she was about to wage. Her relaxed posture and measured tone contradicted the fierce determination that had driven her eighteen-month campaign to reform pharmaceutical pricing—a fight that had earned her powerful enemies in the healthcare industry.

The senator began by recapitulating the key findings from the committee's investigation. She methodically summarized months of testimony, distilling hundreds of pages of evidence into a compelling narrative that even her opponents found difficult to dismiss. The recap served to remind colleagues who had been distracted by other legislative priorities exactly what was at stake.

"These practices typify everything wrong with our current system," Chen declared, gesturing toward a chart displaying price increases for essential medications. The examples she presented were characteristic of industry-wide patterns, representing not isolated incidents but systematic exploitation that affected millions of American families.

The pharmaceutical lobby had worked aggressively to promulgate their version of events through expensive advertising campaigns and carefully placed media stories. They had promoted their narrative widely, hoping to shape public opinion before the vote, but independent fact-checkers had exposed numerous misleading claims in their messaging.

Chen's approach was tempered by political pragmatism. Her original proposal had been moderated significantly to secure bipartisan support, softening provisions that moderate Republicans found too aggressive while preserving the legislation's core reforms. This balanced approach frustrated progressive allies who wanted more dramatic action but recognized the necessity of compromise.

The senator drew analogous comparisons to successful reforms in other countries, noting that Canada and Germany had implemented similar pricing controls without the catastrophic consequences industry lobbyists predicted. These comparable examples from functioning healthcare systems undermined claims that regulation would inevitably destroy pharmaceutical innovation.

Critics argued that the bill's enforcement mechanisms were merely nominal—existing in name only without genuine power to compel compliance. They pointed to loopholes that would allow companies to evade oversight through creative accounting and subsidiary structures, rendering the oversight provisions largely symbolic rather than substantive.

Throughout the debate, Chen sought to imbue her colleagues with a sense of moral urgency. She filled her speeches with personal stories from constituents who had rationed insulin or skipped cancer treatments because of unaffordable prices, instilling in listeners an emotional connection to the policy's real-world implications.

The opposition maintained that price controls would prove detrimental to medical research, arguing that reduced profits would harm investment in developing new treatments. They warned that short-term savings would come at the cost of long-term innovation, potentially damaging the pipeline of breakthrough therapies that American laboratories had traditionally produced.

After six hours of passionate debate, the vote remained too close to call. Senator Chen knew that regardless of the outcome, she had fundamentally changed the conversation around healthcare policy. The issues she raised would not disappear with a single vote—they would continue shaping American politics for years to come.

Vocabulary words practiced: belie, recapitulate, typify, promulgate, tempered, analogous, nominal, imbue, detrimental