Jessica Wynn

That's a great way to frame it.

Look, they can be helpful.

The question is helpful for what and helpful compared to what and helpful for whom.

Sometimes all three.

And that's what makes this industry so fascinating and so problematic, because there is value in some of these materials, but it's all wrapped up in fear, inequality, and marketing.

And nobody had tutors.

I don't even think my parents realized I took the SATs.

I actually took them twice because my first attempt when I got out of the car, my graphing calculator fell in the parking lot and I stepped on it.

So I took the math section with just my brain that day.

I think so.

It's probably just an app.

I don't remember how big and clunky those things were.

I wonder if it's harder or easier today.

Oh, man, you jerk.

Yeah.

Just like cheating, it still exists, I'm sure, but the approach has evolved a lot.

So standardized testing itself goes back decades.

The SAT launched in 1926.

But the test prep industry as we know it, that really exploded in the 80s and 90s.

You had the rise of companies like Princeton Review, founded in 1981, and Kaplan, which started in the 40s but really grew during this period.