Jessica Wynn

But others, they don't do so much.

Some of them are basically the same exact thing repackaged over and over, like the same structure, the same advice, the same strategies.

They just put a new cover and a slightly different promise on the front of it with like a different font.

Yeah.

And now you've got this whole corporate consolidation thing happening.

A few companies own most of the test prep market.

So sometimes the same company that makes the test is selling you the prep materials, which seems like a conflict of interest.

But what do I know?

I mean, it's even worse than that because it's not like everyone takes the same test.

With standardized testing, you've got this vertical integration where the same corporate entity controls multiple parts of the ecosystem.

Even how it's graded, when the essay portions were there, I worked for ACT briefly.

And not that this was my position, but the same people who were grading the essays at the ACT were also working down the street grading essays at the SAT, which are totally different rubrics.

So the whole thing is messy.

I think that's a big money grab.

But the pressure is real for all of these tests, though.

Like a narrative has been built that these tests determine your future, how successful you're going to be in life.

You know, get a good score, go to a good college, get a good job, live happily ever after.

You get a bad score, you're going to work at Dairy Queen forever, which is nonsense.

But it's the story we tell.

They can.