Education reformers have been concerned that U.S. schools are not helping to develop in their students critical thinking or reasonable, reflective thinking about what to do or believe. Because of the significant role standardized tests play in measuring student progress, and the way in which they may influence the content and dissemination of what is taught, it is important to know the extent to which standardized tests have critical thinking content. This paper investigates the amount of critical thinking content in the verbal questions of two widely used standardized examinations--the P-SAT and the P-ACT+. It was found that the P-ACT+, with 31.4% of its verbal based questions determined to contain critical thinking, scored a higher incidence of critical thinking content than did the P-SAT, with only 18.5% of its questions showing any critical thinking content. Whether standardized tests are compatible with the goal of promoting critical thinking is thus called into question. A 15-item list of references is included as is an evaluation questionnaire for determining critical thinking content in tests. (DB)