“But you can't blame teachers if their tests are hackable. Their job is to teach, not to create unhackable tests. The real problem is grades, or more precisely,

“But you can't blame teachers if their tests are hackable. Their job is to teach, not to create unhackable tests. The real problem is grades, or more precisely, that grades have been overloaded.” Two important things here: * Grade inflation makes for happier students and counterbalances the value of test hacking. Today there are very few schools that don’t do grade inflation. Without considering grade inflation, much of this essay is simply Graham entertaining his own nostalgia. (I’m not necessarily a proponent of inflation but it’s a key phenomena missing from the essay). * Good teachers hold lots of office hours and give good feedback through those offerings. Email support is also a lot more popular today. You can also play games like test corrections, rough drafts, etc. Students don’t learn well without feedback, and most teachers who don’t invest in it won’t succeed today. This focus towards feedback in modern teaching is at odds with the education community profiled in this essay. If there’s one lesson to un-learn, it’s to forget about giving attention to non-constructive papers that lack evidence. While this essay gives a thorough criticism of tests, it offers no concrete alternative. And it offers no grounding for the claimed ‘good’ student who ‘focuses on valuable learning.’ Graham, like any other VC, seeks to upwell sentiment in the interest of controlling it (e.g. creating an investment asset out of it). Reading this essay doesn’t teach you anything about hacking unless you recognize that the author is trying to hack you himself.