Students beyond the primary grades who struggle with reading lack basic word attack ability and are thus unable to read new words with accuracy. However, there has been little research that reveals the specific word attack errors students exhibit. In this study, 123 struggling adolescent readers receiving special education services were given the Consortium on Reading Excellence, Inc. (CORE) Phonics Survey to determine word attack knowledge for both real and pseudo one syllable and multi-syllabic words and to analyze their performances based on student characteristics. Results revealed that students' abilities to read real words did not carry over into reading pseudo words, that students struggled with multi-syllabic words more than single syllable words, that students struggled more with r-controlled and long vowel single syllable words and less with -tch diagraph and short vowel single syllable words and that there were no significant differences based on demographics. These results confirm that older struggling readers may benefit from additional instruction in attacking words and that the instruction should focus on their particular areas of weakness.