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The top link is a study that shows that the improvement is pretty marginal in practice.

It does miss something: in specific ethnic enclaves SAT coaching is much more effective, perhaps because of a culture of out-of-school schoolwork and teaching beyond SAT prep. Those enclaves aren't particularly wealthy either (if I recall correctly it was a Korean enclave). Even then we're talking 70 points -- not nothing, but also not a radical transformation.



> Even then we're talking 70 points -- not nothing, but also not a radical transformation.

That would depend on the baseline score. For instance, if it was a 1510 baseline and then went up +70, then it would be useful.


I think it's usually not improvement at the highest levels.


I wouldn't be surprised if those improvements were mostly moving below-average scores toward the average, by giving deprived students basic skills that their "education" didn't.




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