SAT

I'm familiar with the test myself, and the fact that you are a SAT tutor is an example why the SAT is worthless.

As you mention, the SAT doesn't test what is taught in the classrooms. Oh you say, that's such a novel idea. But for such a "crucial" test for college admission, there are those students that don't fit the bill. At poorer-urban school where teachers struggle to cover the basics of algebra, the kids are asked to take a test that doesn't match their curriculum. They are not used to percentage problems, heck , they've never been tested on word problems. Are the problems themselves, unfair? No. It's just the teachers don't cover this "extraneous" material for some schools, since it's not a part of their curriculum. Thus with a few tips, a student can gain several points.

As for vocabulary, it's ridiculous how much it effects the reading portions. The test extracts passages that contain vocabulary that student's don't know. And what's worse is that the SAT is notorious for using the same vocabulary bank for their tests. There's the difficult vocabulary even in the answers -- to explain a mood or such. Is it reasonable to test on so vocabulary? Yes, but if students are tipped off on a vocabulary bank before, they are much much more likely to score higher. Thus the SAT is very "game-able"

On Grammar. Tell kids half the answers are subject-verb agreement. Wow. And the rest are "noun-pronoun agreement, parallelism, fragments, comma splices, and dangling modifier" That's just strikes the fear away, and gives them something to study. Again. It's a tip that's otherwise unknown but greatly beneficial if used.

Game-able. The SAT without these tips is a normal aptitude test. It does not measure what the kids have learned in the classroom directly. It tests the intuition. But this ain't a perfect world. It's a very strategic test where those who can afford SAT tutors do much better than their regular peers. A more straight up test that measures what the student has learned is a much better test.