The Reading Comprehension section of the SAT is still vocabulary driven. And scores have been steadily going downward nationawide.   See the article quoted below.  

Q: If I’m an A student in English, why should I prep for the Verbal side of the SAT?

A: If you’re naturally good in this area it will be relatively easy to help you get even more questions right. A point’s a point.

Q: I don’t read a lot, vocabulary is hard for me, the passage is slow or boring, the questions seem ambiguous.

A: Ok, it wasn’t really a question.  But I hear all those lines a lot.  You can still take charge of your performance on this part of the test and show what you DO know.  It probably won’t be your best subject but there are points to be gotten by learning how this test works with your brain.

Q: You mean I’m going to have to do assignments for prep classes?

A: You bet. I took the test years ago. If you want the score you have to do the work.

The class of 2011 had record low scores on the reading comprehension section. Here’s a quote from an article in last Thursday’s LA Times. “Everyone thinks of 21st century skills as math, science and computers, but we’re finding that being able to communicate with the written word in a variety of formats is going to be one of the most essential tools,” Hull said. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/15/nation/la-na-0914-sat-scores-20110915