| ▲ | ceejayoz an hour ago |
| > Preparing for the SAT requires a book and an internet connection. Sports frequently just requires a ball or a place to run. In both scenarios, you can still purchase better equipment/training. There are very expensive, effective SAT prep options out there for the wealthy. |
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| ▲ | criddell 43 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| My kids were able to take some SAT test prep course through their school (partially funded by the PTA) and it helped a lot. They wrote a bunch of practice exams and each time their scores went up. Also, test taking itself is a skill and the more you practice it the better you get at it. If you’ve written the SAT 15 times over the past 2 years, then the 16th time won’t be as stressful and you will know strategies that work and the questions will be familiar. If you are in a school that doesn’t have a well funded PTA, you are at a disadvantage. |
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| ▲ | jeffbee 28 minutes ago | parent [-] | | You can, as of about a year ago, take official SAT practice exams for free in Google Gemini. | | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz 25 minutes ago | parent [-] | | SAT prep is much more than just taking practice exams. | | |
| ▲ | jeffbee 22 minutes ago | parent [-] | | The person to whom I responded seemed to imply that it consists chiefly or entirely of taking practice exams. I merely wish to point out that if you want your kid to take SAT practice exams every month you can do it for free at home. | | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz 20 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Such a "SAT test prep course" is going to involve more than just self-guided practice exams. It'll include feedback and coaching to address deficits revealed by those practice exams. | | |
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| ▲ | triceratops 18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Whatever gates you put up, the wealthy can fire cannons of cash at them. You just have to pick the ones least vulnerable to cash barrages. What is the marginal gain of expensive SAT prep? Versus just doing hundreds of mock tests out of some prep book, like SWEs grinding LeetCode? |
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| ▲ | valleyer an hour ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Your analogy works against you, given that tons of professional athletes come from poverty. |
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| ▲ | ceejayoz an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Professional athletes are like people who get 1600s on the SAT; a bit of an outlier. | | |
| ▲ | Aarostotle 41 minutes ago | parent [-] | | That's exactly the point. Top schools are looking for outlier intellectual talent, but the egalitarian approach (high school grade inflation plus weakening of standardized testing) smooths the differences and makes it harder for them to admit the right people. The visible result has been the weakening of these institutions. Do also observe that this is recursive — as these institutions have lowered their standards over decades, the people who go through them and end up leading them are weaker, too. | | |
| ▲ | t0mpr1c3 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | We're talking about the California state education system here. They do not have the option to restrict the provision of their services to a tiny elite. The concerns of "top schools" absorbs altogether too much oxygen. | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Top schools are looking for outlier intellectual talent… Eh, somewhat. They want some of those outliers hobnobbing with the legacies. |
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| ▲ | rixed 9 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | According to IA this is mostly a myth though. | |
| ▲ | BigTTYGothGF 44 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | > tons of professional athletes come from poverty Is that actually the case? | | |
| ▲ | xhkkffbf 2 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Read up on Kobe Bryant or Bronny James. | |
| ▲ | ptek 30 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Depends on the sport. I don’t think the Olympic equestrian competitors would be dirt poor. |
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