4 ms·

I'd hardly call rich parents paying for SAT prep classes a better solution.

by adammunich 6y ago

kansface 6y ago
SAT prep classes have a small effect size.
- collegeburner 6y ago
  I'll absolutely second this. I know kids who went to tons of prep classes for literally years. I had a friend whose parents paid for her to attend SAT prep summer camp for about a month every summer starting in sixth grade. Most of them did fine, but their scores were commensurate with that you'd expect from their report cards. I didn't study much and did very well. The students who did very well were mostly either those who were high-achieving in other respects or those who worked very, very hard. E.g. I know someone who wasn't particularly academically outstanding but got a perfect score with study, practice books only, no expensive classes.
takeda 6y ago
Now they can pay directly? At least with SAT poor students still had a chance if they did well on the test.
yters 6y ago
I improved my SAT score 100 points just doing practice tests
- catalogia 6y ago
  How many times did you take it? If it was only twice, how can you be sure how much of that 100 point discrepancy was attributable to practice, and how much of it was essentially down to chance? I doubt you'd get the same score twice if you took it twice without studying in between.
  - yters 6y ago
    I did the same thing with the GRE many years later. Jumped something like 80 points with a book of Kaplan practice tests. Maybe I got lucky twice :)
zests 6y ago
Private high schools bother me much more then SAT tutors do. I went to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY and it drove me insane how many people had previously gone to a private high school. The amount of resources they had that I didn't have at my good, public high school was astounding. It was really 'stand out from the crowd' kind of resources that are probably going to become even more important with the removal of SAT/ACT.
- riku_iki 6y ago
  I am curious if it can change now with so many good online educational resources.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nicoburns 6y ago
  Yeah, I also went to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY (in the UK). There were a lot of private high school students, but what stood out to me even more was the level of resourcing and support that the state schools that some students had gone to had given them. A lot of these "good state-funded schools" pushed people to specific A-levels that looked good to universities, and had coaching on the university interviews and entrance exams (not to mention a much higher standard of teaching). These schools regularly had 100+ students a year get into $GOOD_UNIVERSITY. In contrast to my school that 2 people go in my year and none some years, and and couldn't even work out which entrance exams I needed to be entered for (which they had to do on my behalf). I don't agree that the SAT is helpful though. These kind of standardised tests measure ability to prep far more than they measure intelligence. In my experience the universities are actually putting quite a lot of effort into making their courses widely accessible (setting lower entrance grades for people from less good schools for example). The problem is really with vastly uneven quality of teaching at the high school level which means that some students really are a lot more prepared for the courses than others (even if that doesn't reflect base level intelligence).
  - twic 6y ago
    I went to a UK $GOOD_UNIVERSITY, and before that, a "good state-funded school". The sum total of coaching for the interview was one mock interview with the head of chemistry and the deputy head - neither of whom had been to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY themselves, or really knew what the interview would be like. Still, they did their best, and i appreciate that! Somehow, the school still got ~10% of each year into Oxbridge; i suppose that's the power of selective admissions.
xxpor 6y ago
So instead you have the luck of the draw of what classes your HS wants to put you in and their crazy grading system? My HS's GPA wasn't out of 4, for example. Also if you ended up in Mr. Boris's class instead of Mrs. Solomon, you basically automatically lost a whole letter grade.
- jcims 6y ago
  Or STEM schools (presumably not all) where ‘mastery’ is the tracked objective, achieved when you scored 80% or higher on tests. However, when mastery is translated to standard scoring models/transcripts it’s recorded as 100%.
LanceH 6y ago
I doubt the rich kids doing well even moves the needle. That is just being used as cover for "too many" Asians taking up the spots of other minorities.

I'd hardly call rich parents paying for SAT prep classes a better solution.

kansface 6y ago

SAT prep classes have a small effect size.

collegeburner 6y ago
I'll absolutely second this. I know kids who went to tons of prep classes for literally years. I had a friend whose parents paid for her to attend SAT prep summer camp for about a month every summer starting in sixth grade. Most of them did fine, but their scores were commensurate with that you'd expect from their report cards. I didn't study much and did very well. The students who did very well were mostly either those who were high-achieving in other respects or those who worked very, very hard. E.g. I know someone who wasn't particularly academically outstanding but got a perfect score with study, practice books only, no expensive classes.

takeda 6y ago

Now they can pay directly? At least with SAT poor students still had a chance if they did well on the test.

yters 6y ago

I improved my SAT score 100 points just doing practice tests

catalogia 6y ago
How many times did you take it? If it was only twice, how can you be sure how much of that 100 point discrepancy was attributable to practice, and how much of it was essentially down to chance? I doubt you'd get the same score twice if you took it twice without studying in between.
- yters 6y ago
  I did the same thing with the GRE many years later. Jumped something like 80 points with a book of Kaplan practice tests. Maybe I got lucky twice :)

zests 6y ago

Private high schools bother me much more then SAT tutors do. I went to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY and it drove me insane how many people had previously gone to a private high school. The amount of resources they had that I didn't have at my good, public high school was astounding. It was really 'stand out from the crowd' kind of resources that are probably going to become even more important with the removal of SAT/ACT.

riku_iki 6y ago
I am curious if it can change now with so many good online educational resources.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nicoburns 6y ago
Yeah, I also went to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY (in the UK). There were a lot of private high school students, but what stood out to me even more was the level of resourcing and support that the state schools that some students had gone to had given them. A lot of these "good state-funded schools" pushed people to specific A-levels that looked good to universities, and had coaching on the university interviews and entrance exams (not to mention a much higher standard of teaching). These schools regularly had 100+ students a year get into $GOOD_UNIVERSITY. In contrast to my school that 2 people go in my year and none some years, and and couldn't even work out which entrance exams I needed to be entered for (which they had to do on my behalf). I don't agree that the SAT is helpful though. These kind of standardised tests measure ability to prep far more than they measure intelligence. In my experience the universities are actually putting quite a lot of effort into making their courses widely accessible (setting lower entrance grades for people from less good schools for example). The problem is really with vastly uneven quality of teaching at the high school level which means that some students really are a lot more prepared for the courses than others (even if that doesn't reflect base level intelligence).
- twic 6y ago
  I went to a UK $GOOD_UNIVERSITY, and before that, a "good state-funded school". The sum total of coaching for the interview was one mock interview with the head of chemistry and the deputy head - neither of whom had been to $GOOD_UNIVERSITY themselves, or really knew what the interview would be like. Still, they did their best, and i appreciate that! Somehow, the school still got ~10% of each year into Oxbridge; i suppose that's the power of selective admissions.

xxpor 6y ago

So instead you have the luck of the draw of what classes your HS wants to put you in and their crazy grading system? My HS's GPA wasn't out of 4, for example. Also if you ended up in Mr. Boris's class instead of Mrs. Solomon, you basically automatically lost a whole letter grade.

jcims 6y ago
Or STEM schools (presumably not all) where ‘mastery’ is the tracked objective, achieved when you scored 80% or higher on tests. However, when mastery is translated to standard scoring models/transcripts it’s recorded as 100%.

LanceH 6y ago

I doubt the rich kids doing well even moves the needle. That is just being used as cover for "too many" Asians taking up the spots of other minorities.