Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The SAT is way more gameable than the College Board would have you believe. Most coaching is not very effective, but there is a group that is very effective. It’s almost by design that they aren’t very popular.

That said it is less gameable than most of the rest of the process. Family wealth and income are probably less gameable, but many schools are need blind.



Are you saying there is some particular training program that increases scores much more than the 30-90 points claimed by various studies?


Yes. And I’m going to be coy and not tell you much about it. So you’re right to be skeptical. In a few years I’ll speak more freely on it.


Skeptical is putting it mildly. I'd give you better chances of having a secret proof of the Riemann Hypothesis than producing miracle educational results at scale (even if it is just on a standardized test).


They are being so vague that’s it’s impossible for us to know, but they didn’t say “at scale”. You’re certainly correct that there isn’t some secret sauce that we could just apply to everyone. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a service that costs (high) 5 or 6 figures per year that could substantially increase test scores.

Though I would imagine such a service would have to take place over months/years and not days/weeks, and that kind of blurs the lines of whether it even counts as test prep at that point.


I’d be just as skeptical. It’s something that would require strong evidence and I’m providing you none.

I’ll be around on HN in five years. Ask me then.


If it's real, you might as well tell everyone and I'll hear about it that way - I am certain you'll be very popular.


To be clear, the plan is to not just tell you. :-)


Can you link published research indicating that you can increase SAT scores through training? The research I have read says the opposite.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: