Caustic/Vehement question update

[snipersas]

<p>

I’d like to make a comment on why this question was difficult, and why there is so much disagreement about the answer. It’s because realizing that “vehement” was correct and “caustic” was not is not just about looking at the definitions of those words in a dictionary. It’s about being familiar with how they are actually used in English. You can only achieve this by reading a lot. So while it’s fine to prep for the SAT by studying vocab lists with definitions (and this may be the only way to effectively prep if the test is imminent) don’t fool yourself that this will really make you understand how words are actually used. Read.

</p>

<p>This. As someone with a pair of (reading) 800’s, I didn’t even see the controversy associated with this question. While the strict denotation of caustic fit the passage reasonably well, the common usage of the word simply didn’t work.</p>