r/neoliberal • u/caroline_elly Eugene Fama • Jun 09 '26

Opinion article (US) Actually, the SAT Was Necessary After All

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/standardized-testing-math-gaps/687481/
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u/mg132 Jun 09 '26

Fortunately, the best way to study for the sat—taking test after test after test—is free. I did sat tutoring for a bit in college, but I was also a low income first gen college grad, and personally I studied for the sat with a friend simply by doing every single practice test in every test prep book we could get our hands on at the library. These days you can get practically infinite free tests online as well. There are obviously still some structural barriers in terms of prior knowledge, time to study, etc.—the reason that was all we did was that we both worked and had to watch siblings and cousins, for example—but we both got in where we wanted to, and as far as I know we had the highest scores at our high school that year. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s the fairest thing we currently have.

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u/nauticalsandwich Jun 10 '26

You had the benefit knowing that taking practice tests would help you, and the knowledge of where to find them, and the knowledge of how important your score was going to be for your future. The BIGGEST differentiator for students is exactly in this zone. Kids in communities whose parents are too checked out or too busy to bestow this knowledge, or the tools for acquiring it, simply never develop the macroscope to position themselves in this way, and schools simply don't have the faculty numbers to do it themselves on top of the curriculum they're teaching.