Part of the problem with math is that it's often taught using examples that are so trivial that they don't require the techniques being taught. If harder examples aren't introduced pretty early, students are left with the idea that they don't need to learn the techniques. You don't really need know any real techniques to figure out that 2x+4=8, you can kinda just figure out that 4+4=8, so x is 2, and if you can't figure that out intuitively, you can just guess and check a few numbers until you have the correct answer. If the entirety of algebra 1 or pre-algebra is taught with similar examples, students will pass the standardized test but not have any of foundations necessary for further math classes and actually won't even have the ability the solve even slightly more complicated versions of the same sorts of problems.