The student who spends time preparing for a test, reviewing the material, studying previous tests, drilling with practice tests, actually has more scholastic aptitude than the students who do not do this because these are actual research and preparation skills that are valuable to success in mastering college material.
The only skill you gain while cramming for the SAT is how to cram for tests like the SAT. The gameability of the SAT is not an indication of general scholastic aptitude
If general scholastic aptitude measured something other than how to study for tests and write essays, then you might be onto something, except that college is simply more of the same.
I always wonder where people get this view of college (the GP's view that is). I went to a non-name state school for undergrad and it was nothing like the above.
I went to Stanford and yeah much of the time was learning the material, then preparing for tests by reviewing material and studying. There was also doing projects, researching, and writing papers arguing various positions and analyzing things. As well as some novel research.
It's very strange to hear people here saying all these things are dumb or foolish or something, and good colleges are not like this at all and this is a "poor educational experience". OK, well, what was their school like then? They don't say. Details and names of schools are omitted from the posts of the critics. Are they talking about the drinking and sex at party schools? Or maybe the football games they attended? That is all fine but I don't usually include that when talking about the academic experience per se. Right, studying, learning and preparing for tests is not about those things, true. But so?
Sorry, you don’t see the distinction between the type of academic study you described and the kind of rote learning and cramming required for tests like the SAT? They are quite dissimilar.
Sorry to hear that your classes at CMU involved just rote memorization and cramming, the two skills that standardized tests like the SAT seem to emphasize most. You apparently must not have availed yourself of course projects, discussion sections, or research experiences. I’m sorry to hear that the vaunted CMU educational experience has apparently gone so far downhill.
My experience was the same as all of my other classmates experience, and it is in the top 3 tech schools in the world.
I am describing what the best schools in the entire world do, and I have lots of knowledge from my classwork, and other classmates experience.
These are the best schools in the world.
And apparently someone else who responded had a similar experience at Stanford, another college that is among the best in the world.
You seem to have zero knowledge about how colleges work at even the literal best schools in the world.
Basically every top college in the world still has tests and final exams and studying and cramming. This is called the "normal college experience" at basically every college and top college in the world (and backed up by someone else in this thread from Stanford!).
