Comment by pugetsounds | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pugetsounds | Hacker News Reader

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As much as I agree with the overall premise that a GPA is harder to focus on than test prep, I disagree that poor families can afford test prep. Blowing away $1000+ so your child (who is not a star student) can potentially get a better SAT score is not going to be something that a poor family considers to be possible.

Anecdotally, I write this comment from the couch of a poor family. My girlfriend’s parents (who I am visiting) live on welfare in a 1 bedroom apartment (hence the couch we are sleeping on). They have a 15-year-old son who could potentially benefit from test prep. He’d also benefit more immediately from a haircut, new clothes, and a therapist. If the parents had $1000, they’d probably buy all of that instead, or lottery tickets.

Extra anecdotally, I also have a 15-year-old stepsister, who has a rich mom. She has new clothes, a nice haircut, and antidepressants. Soon she’ll have a car for when she’s 16 and most likely will revive some SAT prep. I have noticed (or at least have theorized) that because my girlfriend’s family cannot afford these things for their children, her young brother in a state of arrested development. His lack of luxury is causing him to miss certain life milestones. His maturity is stunted (even for a 15-year-old boy) and he would not be a good candidate for test prep.

It’s not like they just spend $1,000 all of a sudden. Poor families plan for that expense and spend the money: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/magazine/asian-test-prep-...

> This summer, Wang and his two younger brothers shared a room with one bunk bed, taking turns sleeping on the floor’s bamboo mat. His parents were in the other bedroom, with his sister and youngest brother. If test-prep classes were ever a financial burden for them, they never showed it, brushing off Wang’s questions, he says, telling him: “You’re just a little kid. Calm down, and leave the finances to us.”

Just because one poor family has paid for test prep doesn’t mean all families can afford this expense.

OP’s comment about other needs (haircut, clothes, etc.) is very real. Where would you suggest test prep stacks relative to paying rent on time, food, clothes, etc.? Are you really suggesting that all poor families that haven’t spent on test prep are simply ignorantly misprioiritizing spend? It seems like there’s a massive gap between your life perspective and that of a poor person’s.

You're missing Rayiner's point. Stuyvesant kids have a 1466 ((<https://brainly.com/insights/best-worst-public-high-schools-...>)), not 1300; Rayiner understated it) average SAT score. Either

* families, often very poor Asians as stated, prioritized saving up for test prep, or

* the kids didn't need it and got the score anyway.

Which would you prefer to support your ideological priors?

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-prep-rite-passage-asian-americ... ("While affluent Asian-Americans are more likely to take test prep, 46.7 percent of low-income Korean-Americans still took a prep course.").

> OP’s comment about other needs (haircut, clothes, etc.) is very real.

Those are short-term expenses. Families can plan for long-term expenses over years. By your logic poor people would never be able to afford a car. But 80% of people living in poverty do have access to a vehicle.

> Are you really suggesting that all poor families that haven’t spent on test prep are simply ignorantly misprioiritizing spend?

I don't know what the priority should be for doing well on tests. My point is that a $1,400 one-time expense is not out of reach even for most poor people.

And nobody said "all."

> It seems like there’s a massive gap between your life perspective and that of a poor person’s.

I grew up very comfortable, but I have family from Bangladesh who immigrated to pretty close to the bottom of the totem pole. Not the very bottom, not homeless, but public housing, working the lowest end service jobs, etc. My wife's parents grew up extremely poor (as in buying meat at the grocery store was a luxury until she was an older kid). Many people really don't understand the difference between people who are destitute (which is a very small number of people) and "normal" poor people.

SAT test prep doesn’t have to cost thousands. A prep book, a timer/clock, and time reading through the tricks and taking practice test(s) would be at least 70% there if not more.

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