Most SATs contain a disputed vocabulary in context question. The October 2026 School Days SAT contained a particularly controversial question that actually generated its own Reddit thread!
The title of the thread is “Obsolete or unsubstantiated?” Let’s begin our analysis by defining the two key words. OBSOLETE means no longer in use and thus out-of-date. For example, typewriters and floppy disks are both OBSOLETE. UNSUBSTANTIATED means not fully proven or supported by evidence. For example, although there are many sightings of unexplained objects, the existence of UFOs remains UNSUBSTANTIATED.
Now let’s take a look at the passage: The passage begins by explaining that in a recent study consumers made simulated purchases of popular grocery items rather than real purchases. OK, so far so good! But a confusing second sentence informs us that the “study’s conclusions about consumer reactions to product substitutions made by online grocers are by no means _______.” The passage then concludes by stating that additional research is needed to determine real-life applications.
Students vigorously debated the merits of OBSOLETE and UNSUBSTANTIATED as possible answers. Let’s take a look and definitively answer this question!
