Why the SAT Annoys Me

When I was in school, I was the kind of student who argued with teachers about test questions. Actually, I argued with teachers about a lot of things, but that is neither here nor there. I have rarely found an ACT question that I would want to argue about, but the SAT is another matter. I can't say that I have ever found an SAT question on which I thought that there was an objectively better answer than the one that the College Board deemed correct, but there are several where I have thought that another answer was just as good as the College Board's choice. Question 28 from the October 2017 Writing and Language section is one example.

Dried collodion is unusable, so once the photo is snapped with a massive, tripod-mounted camera, the photographer has nominal minutes to develop it, using more chemicals.

The writer wants to emphasize how quickly wet plate photographers have to work. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?

A)  NO CHANGE
B)  a few
C)  a matter of
D)  mere

The correct answer is D, but I am hard pressed to see a meaningful difference between "mere minutes" and "a matter of minutes." According to Merriam-Webster, "a matter of" is "used to refer to a small amount," while "mere" means "being nothing more than." If one of them does indicate a shorter period of time, I guess it would be "mere," but I am far from convinced that it does.