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

SAT Vocabulary November 2025 International - Round 1 - Warm-up Reading Passage

Instructions: Read this passage carefully before taking your quiz. All 11 vocabulary words from November 2025 International SAT Round 1 appear in context. Pay attention to how each word is used naturally in the story.

The Whistleblower

For three decades, Marcus Webb had been a loyal intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency, his proclivity for pattern recognition making him invaluable during the Cold War era. His tendency to spot connections others missed had earned him numerous commendations and the quiet respect of colleagues who recognized his exceptional talents.

But everything changed when he discovered Operation Nightfall.

The clandestine program had operated in total secrecy for seven years, conducting surveillance on American citizens without judicial oversight. Marcus spent weeks gathering evidence, his hands trembling as he compiled files documenting the hidden operation's scope and methods.

His supervisor, Director Patricia Chen, was a calculating woman who had risen through the agency's ranks by always knowing exactly which relationships to cultivate and which rivals to undermine. Her cold, strategic mind had anticipated nearly every threat to her authority—but she hadn't anticipated Marcus.

When he finally requested a private meeting, Marcus had prepared extensively to expound on his concerns. He explained in meticulous detail how the surveillance program violated constitutional protections, walking Director Chen through the legal frameworks, historical precedents, and potential consequences if the operation became public.

Her response was deliberately equivocal. She neither confirmed nor denied the program's existence, her ambiguous statements designed to provide legal cover while revealing nothing actionable. "These matters are complex," she said, her tone measured. "What seems problematic from one perspective may appear entirely justified from another."

Marcus left the meeting feeling ambivalent—torn between his loyalty to an institution he'd served for three decades and his conviction that constitutional principles must transcend institutional allegiances. He was genuinely uncertain which path to take, caught between two competing obligations that both felt sacred.

The agency's public relations office had already begun preparing what Marcus recognized as a caricature of his character—an exaggerated portrait depicting him as an unstable, paranoid employee with a history of mental health concerns. The distorted depiction bore little resemblance to the decorated analyst who had served with distinction, but it would serve its purpose if needed.

Marcus had always admired iconoclastic thinkers—those rare individuals willing to challenge established norms and shatter institutional assumptions, even at tremendous personal cost. He thought of Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and other rule-breakers who had fundamentally transformed public understanding of government power. Now he faced a similar choice.

What struck him most was how prescient certain civil liberties advocates had been decades earlier. With remarkable foresight, they had warned that post-9/11 surveillance authorities would inevitably expand beyond their original scope, that secret programs would multiply in darkness, that oversight mechanisms would prove insufficient. Their predictions had proven remarkably accurate.

Despite pressure from former colleagues urging him to remain silent, Marcus refused to eschew his responsibility to the public. He would not avoid this confrontation, no matter the personal consequences. Some duties, he believed, could not be delegated or declined.

His attorney, the renowned civil rights lawyer Benjamin Torres, was celebrated for his sagacity in navigating complex whistleblower cases. His wisdom, accumulated over forty years of legal practice, proved invaluable as they planned their approach. "The courts will eventually vindicate you," Torres advised, "but first you must survive what the government will throw at you."

The night before going public, Marcus sat alone in his apartment, surrounded by cardboard boxes containing three decades of memories. He understood that his life would never be the same—that he would face prosecution, public scrutiny, and the permanent enmity of powerful institutions.

But he also understood something else: that silence in the face of injustice is itself a choice, and not an innocent one.

The following morning, Marcus Webb became a household name.

Vocabulary words practiced: expound (on), eschew, iconoclastic, prescient, equivocal, calculating, caricature, ambivalent, proclivity, sagacity, clandestin