The purpose of a high standard is to differentiate the levels of acquired intelligence and achievement so that selective schools can identify the very best students among the merely competent ones. Inclusion of some obscure words helped to set those truly superior students apart in fields where language mastery is valued. Thanks to politically correct pressure, the SAT will soon measure only a level of functional competence in language, with excellence ignored and therefore eventually discouraged. When those who are average demand and get higher scores that they do not merit, the system has been dumbed down. An average society despises and punishes merit.
Sorry; that post is slightly above the 12 year old level. Can dial it back a bit?
Did it really matter if Einstein learned a ton of big words in school? Of course not, Einstein was himself because he invented things, not because he run circles around someone with words they couldn't understand.