D (2:18)

I.

A (2:18)

We have starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on persuasion and negotiation, psychology, disinformation, junk science, crime and cults, and more that'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com start or you can search for us in your Spotify app, and those should pop right up. Today, we're talking about test prep. Not just the books. Everything people use to prepare for a standardized test. Courses, tutors, apps, all of it. We're not debating whether studying actually helps. Obviously it does. What we're asking is what prep materials actually do well. Where do they cross the line into being overhyped or just outright predatory? And how much of this is genuine help versus manufactured anxiety for profit? How did a few study guides turn into a multibillion dollar test prep economy? Helping us cram the answers is writer and researcher Jessica Wynn. So let's start with the obvious question here. Are test prep books and courses? Are they actually helpful? Or is all this kind of just vibes?

C (3:18)

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?

A (3:28)

Okay, so great. We're getting philosophical right out of the gate. I like it because I think what people really want to know is if I drop $500 or $5,000, more like it, on a book and a course or whatever, am I buying actual help and peace of mind, or am I buying some really expensive anxiety accoutrements?

C (3:49)

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.

A (4:03)

Okay, but let's set the stage here. When did this become a thing? My parents did not buy me a $500 book to take the SATs. They were like, Good luck. Use a number two pencil. Try not to embarrass us. And I think, like, the gunner in our class was like, you gotta go to the Barnes and Noble and get this book. And it said Kaplan on it or something. And I was like, okay. And it was a bunch of practice tests. And it was like, ooh, man, you're really taking this seriously. You gotta book a practice test. Wow. Okay. This guy knows what he's doing. That was the extent of it. Nobody was in a class in the 90s.

C (4:33)

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.

A (4:51)

That sucks. Brains are definitely substandard equipment these days, by the way. People are probably like, what's a graphing calculator? Do we either use those things anymore?

C (4:59)

I think so. It's probably just an app. I don't remember how big and clunky

A (5:03)

those things were, but, yeah, TI82.

C (5:05)

Yeah, exactly.

A (5:06)

Then in my school, which is ironic because it was a bunch of, like, wealthy kids around me, a lot of them, they kept getting stolen. And it was like, who's stealing these calculators? And you found out it was like a rich kid stealing all the calculators and selling them. Born entrepreneur, I guess. And slash to go to prison. Yeah. And I remember those things. Not that I ever did this, but you could make a file in there and you could save things in that file. And then the teachers got wise to that because people would put little cheat sheets in the graphing calculator.

C (5:37)

Oh, for sure. That's how I passed calculus.

A (5:40)

That's right. So then it was like, what if I make a file and the top part looks like I'm just working on a problem? And then if you scroll down far enough, there's all the answers. And then it was like a game of cat and mouse. And then teachers were like, aha. And then it was like, oh, but there's this other screen that you can get to if you do this. It was just a whole thing. And I remember I got a different graphing calculator because they didn't require you to have a TI82 or TI83. I got some other brand. And the teacher would just look at it and be like, I don't know how that thing works. Not me. Some other guy had all of his cheat sheets in that thing. And it was like, good luck figuring that out, Mr. Hart. You're never going to get there anyway.

C (6:16)

I wonder if it's harder or easier today.

A (6:19)

Yeah. Because you probably can't use your phone. That would be too easy. Right. So it's like you got to use this special thing. But then, I don't know. Look, kids are going to find a way to cheat. We had a Japanese school that used to run on Sundays or Saturdays at our school. And they would just use all the classrooms. Japanese, because I guess all the auto suppliers from. Japan.

C (6:36)

Japan.

A (6:36)

Were working in Detroit at that time. And so they wanted their Kids to learn more than they were learning in American school and also learn in Japanese. And every Monday, you'd come in and you'd find the teeny tiniest little piece of paper balled up in the little pencil trough on the desk, and you'd be like, ah, what's that? And you would unroll it. It would be this microscopic Japanese kanji written down. And I remember taking one and showing it to the Japanese teacher and being like, what is this? I find this every Monday on this desk that I sit at. And she's like, this is a cheat sheet for an exam.

C (7:07)

Oh, man. You jerk.

A (7:08)

Yeah. And I was like, oh, nevermind. And she's like, yeah, yeah, I don't care, slash know who that is, so whatever. But yeah, it's like, hey, bro, clean up your evidence after you're done. Throw this thing somewhere. Don't leave it in the pencil trough. Come on, man.

C (7:22)

Those Americans will never be able to read this.

A (7:24)

Rookie mistake. Yeah, but then it's like, what do you think this note is in Japanese that I find stashed away every day? Or you'd come back and you'd open up the desk if you had one of those, and underneath there'd be kanji written inside. And it's like, do Japanese people just not know how to look inside? This is the most obvious attempt at cheating. These kids need to learn. These kids need to learn how to cheat, for God's sake.

C (7:45)

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.

A (8:11)

What changed? Why did it suddenly become this massive industry?

C (8:14)

I think a few things converged. So college admissions got more competitive. The baby boomer, like echo meant more kids competing for the same number of spots. And then there was this growing belief that these tests were coachable, that you could actually improve your score significantly with the right preparation.

A (8:34)

And someone saw that parental and student anxiety and went, hey, I can monetize this. There's always somebody ready to sell you a map when you're scared.

C (8:41)

Yeah, of course. And the pitch is kind of brilliant. Hey, these tests are high stakes. Your entire future depends on them. Wouldn't you like some help? Books in particular, they took off because they felt like the affordable option can't swing this $2,000 prep course, no problem. Here's a $50 book, same information. Probably.

A (9:01)

The word probably is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I remember when I took the lsat, my German teacher was like, oh, you need to take a class. You can't just use a book for this. And I was like, hehehe, it's in a month, I'm not taking a class now. Those all started three months ago. Oh, and by the way, they're super expensive. No. And I just took it with book prep. But yeah, when you get there and you find out everybody else has been in three months of intensive classes, you're like, I'm screwed.

C (9:25)

And you can just convince yourself to do bad. And there's also, with all the books, there's a huge range. So some books are genuinely useful. They break down the test format, they offer realistic practice questions and teach time management. 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.

A (9:57)

Oh, good. And a new font. That's all incredibly frustrating, but also not surprising at all.

C (10:01)

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?

A (10:17)

Yeah, well, so the same people who make the test are selling you the guide to pass the same test that they make. That's crazy. So yeah, we're gonna fail you, but for 200 bucks, we'll tell you why.

C (10:27)

Kind of. 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.

A (10:42)

That's weird because it's called standardized testing. I just assumed that meant everyone takes the same test. Okay.

C (10:48)

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's messy.

A (11:09)

Yeah, they try and standardize that too, but there's still a human being like, I don't like that point, or that wasn't well done, and the other person's I just got married. I love everyone. This is great. You get an A. Yeah, I don't know. I just. I don't trust that stuff, that it's too subjective, which is the opposite of the point of standardized testing. So they've created the problem and the solution.

C (11:27)

Yeah. Bingo.

A (11:28)

Okay. That's a lot of pressure for most of the people who dive into test prep, which are high school kids, and they've got to prepare for SATs, ACTs. I had AP exams, and I know some people took PSATs. I don't even know what those are.

C (11:42)

Yeah, 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.

A (12:08)

And that's what prep companies are taking advantage of. The importance of that score. So are the materials actually helping people with this or not?

C (12:15)

They can. For an overwhelmed student, a good prep course, along with its books and apps, provides structure. It breaks down the exam sections, explains question types, and just teaches basic strategies. And honestly, just understanding the format of these tests is huge. Imagine walking into the SAT without ever seeing what it looks like.

A (12:37)

Right? You're like, what is this? The bubbles? What are these? What's all this? Geometry and stuff? Yeah.

D (12:43)

No, thanks.

C (12:43)

Yeah, exactly. So prep does serve a purpose. The problem is, they're also teaching to the test. They're not necessarily making you smarter or better educated. They're making you better at taking this specific test.

A (12:57)

Okay, but isn't that the whole point? If you need to take the test to get into college, College. Shouldn't you learn how to take the test? I don't need to get smarter. Suddenly I just need to learn how to ace this dumb thing.

C (13:07)

Yeah, sure. I mean, but here's where it gets messy. The SAT is supposed to be this objective measure of academic achievement. Except study after study shows that high school gpa, regardless of what high school you went to, is actually a better predictor of college success than SAT scores.

A (13:26)

Wait, so we're making everybody lose their mind over a test, and the test doesn't predict the thing that it claims to pred?

C (13:33)

Pretty much. And this is where the bias argument gets complicated. So some people say that SAT itself is biased. Others say the test isn't biased, but the System around it is okay, but

A (13:45)

biased could mean a lot of things. What does that actually mean here? I remember they were saying that back when I was in high school. They're like, it's biased towards wealthy white people. And it was like, why? And there are examples where there's questions about sailing. And the example they gave had nothing to do with sailing. It just had happened to have a sailboat in it. And I'm like, I don't think people who own a sailboat have an advantage. I always feel like these bias arguments, 50% nonsense. But what does it mean here?

C (14:10)

Do you remember when they would say, you always say, prefer not to answer on the race questions, whatever question you can, because that gives you a better advantage. It puts you in a different pile than if I was always like, really? That's that.

A (14:25)

Anyway, that's an easy hack. If that's a thing that sounds like, maybe it's a different pile. But can't you just lie? They're not going to be like, prove. Well, you probably shouldn't do that either. But still, the whole thing to me, I don't know. I know plenty of white rich kids who bombed all of these SATs and standardized tests. I'm not sure. I'm not sure, man.

C (14:45)

The official line from the College Board is that the test is rigorously reviewed to remove biased questions and that score gaps mostly reflect unequal K through 12 education, not flaws in the test itself.

A (14:59)

That sounds reasonable, but. So who's actually scoring?

C (15:02)

Well, then this is where the critics start poking holes. First, the SAT has a messy history. It grew out of early 20th century ideas about intelligence that weren't exactly inclusive. They were tied to eugenics, IQ testing, and the belief that aptitude was fixed and evenly distributed, often along racial, ethnic and class lines. And second, even today, wealthier students consistently score higher, and not just because they're smarter.

A (15:32)

Because money buys prep.

C (15:33)

Exactly. Money buys prep time, quiet places to study, tutors, coaching, and someone tracking your progress. So the test might be standardized, but access to preparation isn't.

A (15:47)

But there are free options, right?

C (15:49)

There are. The Khan Academy offers free SAT prep materials like videos, articles, and practice tests. And it's genuinely solid. They even partnered with the College Board to create it. But free only helps if you have the support to use it. A kid using Khan Academy needs self discipline, a quiet space, and probably someone checking in on their progress, which not

A (16:13)

every kid has for sure.

C (16:14)

And a kid with a $3,000 tutor has a personalized study plan, someone holding them accountable and adapting the approach to Address their specific weaknesses. Also, families who can afford these prep courses like Barron's or Princeton Review, they just see bigger score gains.

A (16:32)

Why? If the free content is good, why do the expensive options work better?

C (16:36)

Because it's not just about the content. It's about that structure and support.

A (16:41)

So even if the test isn't rigged, the outcomes are kind of rigged.

C (16:45)

That's the heart of the criticism. And here's another issue. Some research suggests the SAT actually under predicts college performance for black and Hispanic students, while slightly over predicting it for white students.

A (16:59)

Sure. Sounds like a lot of the kids don't perform how the test predicts they're going to perform.

C (17:03)

Yeah. Which raises the question, if GPA does a better job predicting success and the test reflects unequal resources more than raw ability, what exactly are we measuring?

A (17:15)

Yeah, Privilege, I guess, in some ways, and I hate that word for a lot of reasons because I think it's sort of overused. But we've created a system where you can buy a better score, you can

C (17:24)

buy preparation for a better score. But yeah, the effect is the same. Kids born into the top 1% of income have a 1 in 4 chance of getting into elite schools. Kids born in the bottom 20%, it goes to a 1 in 300 chance.

A (17:41)

That's not a gap. That is a chasm. Wow.

C (17:43)

Yeah. And test prep is just one piece of it. Rich parents also have legacy admissions, fancy extracurriculars, and expensive sports. My kid plays lacrosse at a private club with professional coaches. Your kid plays pickup basketball at the park. Guess whose extracurriculars look better on paper?

A (18:02)

The lacrosse kid. So even though my kid might be more resourceful, more resilient, more everything, that kid had better prep.

C (18:08)

Yeah, yeah. It's just a whole ecosystem that rewards privilege.

A (18:11)

The whole college system kind of rewards privilege. But. Okay, so maybe test prep shouldn't be for sale at all. I don't know. That doesn't sound right either.

C (18:20)

That's the argument some people make though. And it's why a growing number of schools are going test optional. So they're recognizing that the entire system is skewed.

A (18:28)

Yeah, that makes some sense to me. In China, they tried to do this. So for people who don't know, they had like after school English and after school, everything. And it became this weird race where it wasn't like some kids who needed English help went to tutors. It was everybody went to tutors for every subject after school. There was a multi billion dollar industry in China that was just prep for everything, tutoring for everything. And it got so out of control because people who couldn't afford it, couldn't afford it. And people who could afford it, they were getting another 20 hours of school every week or something. It was just nuts, right? So they were doing so much better. And so what the government did is just overnight went, hey, these are illegal. So they just nuked this billion dollar industry or whatever in China. And I remember my Chinese lessons got super, super cheap after that because they were like, we NOW can hire 8,000 more teachers to do this. So the supply went way up and the competition went way up because everybody who couldn't teach local Chinese kids, which was every teacher in China, they were allowed to work on the Internet to teach foreigners. And what do they do? What do they teach foreigners? Chinese.

C (19:39)

Chinese. Wow.

A (19:40)

It went from, like, a couple of companies teaching online Chinese to half of the teachers in China teaching Chinese online. Yeah. I remember my company was like, if you renew now at your regular price, you get this. And I was like, can we negotiate? And they were like, honestly? Yeah, they cut their prices way down. But anyway, that was good for me. But my point is, the whole industry basically got nuked because it's an authoritarian regime that can say, this business is illegal now and nobody's gonna fight it. And it was like, overnight, they just said, you can't do that. But here's the problem. All of those prep schools, they're shut down. So if you were sending your kid to after school, English after school, Chinese history, after school, whatever, those are gone. But if you actually have a lot of money, you hire that teacher that used to teach 20 kids after school, and they just come to your house. Yes. And that's legal because. And also totally unenforceable, even if it weren't legal. So now it went from, hey, the top 10% are getting extra tutoring, to, hey, now the top 1% are getting private tutoring and everybody else can't get access.

C (20:39)

Do you think the university's there made any changes, knowing all this?

A (20:43)

I doubt it.

C (20:44)

Yeah, I don't think they did. Yeah, well.

A (20:46)

What a perspicacious transition into capitalism. We'll be right back after a few words from the companies who promise not to make you lacrimose. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by Hexclad. One day, Jen just decided we're done with mediocre pans and replaced basically all of our cookware with Hexclad. I'm not exaggerating. She's been borderline obsessed ever since gifted them to family, gifted them to friends. Hexclad is this really smart hybrid design where you get the performance of stainless steel and the convenience of nonstick in the same pan. They've got these patented laser etched steel hexagons that give you a legit sear and then the nonstick valleys in between make cooking and cleanup ridiculously easy. Like you're not scraping burned on nonsense for 20 minutes. You wipe it out and you're done. And they check every box. Dishwasher safe, oven safe up to 900 degrees, non toxic free from PTFE and forever chemicals induction compatible. Plus they've got over a million customers, more than 50,000 five star reviews. And even Gordon Ramsay uses them at home and in his restaurants. And everything comes with a lifetime warranty. This is the kind of upgrade where you buy it once and you're set

B (21:43)

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A (22:01)

This episode is sponsored in part by Bombas. One of the goals this year and all year round is to stay comfy and and Bombas is leading that charge. In my house we love Bombas so much. It's all we wear. We even gift it to our family and our friends and our nanny. We're big fans of the grip socks so we don't slip around on our floors. Bombas just launched their new sports socks which are amazing for whatever you're into. Running, golf, hiking. We're planning to do more snowboarding this year and these things are cushioned, sweat wicking and packed with techy features that make it feel like your feet are finally on your side around the house at night. I'm living in their Sunday slippers which keep my feet cozy during those cold winter nights. And Bombas also has underwear and tees. Buttery, soft, breathable. The kind of base layers that ruin brand for you. Plus, for every item you purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to somebody facing housing insecurity. One purchased one donated over 150 million so far.

B (22:49)

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A (22:59)

Don't forget about our newsletter. We Bit Wiser comes out every Wednesday. It is an under 2 minute read. I promise you that. It's a gem from a past show or just from our regular lives, from me and Gabriel to you directly. And again, it's highly practical, something that you can apply right away and it's something you can skim real easy on Wednesday morning. Jordanharbinger.com News is where you can find it. Now back to Skeptical Sunday. Look, maybe they sort of are supposed to, but what are you going to do? Not take the highest scoring students? Because maybe they got extra tutoring so that whole don't make it accessible. One, it doesn't work. Two, it's just unenforceable even if you could get a law about it or regulation about it. So I think the test optional thing is probably the way to go. So how many schools are test optional now? And by the way, test optional means what? You didn't take the SATs, but you can still apply to Michigan and they don't say, hey, where's your SAT score?

C (23:49)

They weigh it differently when they're looking at applications. I don't know the specifics, but yeah, you don't have to take the tests. So over 1800 four year colleges and universities in the US are test optional or test flexible. And that number grew significantly during COVID

A (24:07)

So did testing just move online during COVID How did they do that? I remember how strict they were with all the proctoring.

C (24:13)

Remember, no one knew what the hell to do. And I think standardized tests just weren't very high on people's list of concerns. But Covid was this massive disruption and testing centers closed. Students just couldn't take the SAT or act. They didn't have the capacity to move it all online. And you know what they found? They could still identify qualified students. Their freshman classes didn't suddenly become unqualified

A (24:39)

disasters because they were using grades, which they found are a better predictor anyway. Basically, the tests were never as essential as they always claimed to be for the last century.

C (24:49)

Yeah, seems to be. And many schools liked the test optional policy because it increased applications. More applications means lower acceptance rates, which makes them look more selective, which improves their rankings.

A (25:01)

And they charge application fees anyway. So if you're paying 100 bucks to apply, yeah, okay, we got a thousand more applications. Darn. We have to hire an extra person to go through it or start a week earlier. It's a revenue generation. Great. So it sounds like even the solution to the problem is driven by these weird incentives, though.

C (25:18)

I think that's just American higher education. It's incentives all the way down.

A (25:23)

And the tests keep changing. I feel like that's part of the scam. The SAT announces, hey, we've updated the test and suddenly your older brother's prep book from last year is useless. And the course login expired.

C (25:34)

And the scoring is changing too. So you have to know what's new that you're prepping for. The ACT just announced they're broadening their score reporting, so they're going to keep the traditional 36 point scale. But now students will also get scores on two new readiness indicators, which are career readiness and Understanding Complex texts.

A (25:57)

Huh? What does that even mean? Probably a good idea, but are they asking 16 year olds how to file a W2? I don't get it.

C (26:03)

No, it's more like, can you interpret workplace documents? Can you analyze technical information? But here's the thing. These changes require new prep materials, new books, new courses. The test evolves, and the prep industry evolves with it. And everyone makes money except the students.

A (26:21)

Yeah.

C (26:21)

Yeah, the students pay money. Whether they make money later is unclear.

A (26:25)

Yeah, I remember I took. I think it was the act, or maybe this was even the lsat, I don't know. And they were like, hey, your score will be ready in, I don't know, 10 weeks. But if you want it in three weeks or four weeks, you can pay $10 on a credit card and call this number. And I was like, I am not giving you $10 to get a score early that you already have that you're going to mail me. That means that you're waiting an extra month or two to mail me because you just want me to pay 10 bucks to get the score on your phone system. So I absolutely refused to do that. And I remember telling all my friends at law school that I was like, I didn't pay those suckers 10 extra dollars. And they were like, how did you sleep? I didn't sleep until I got that score. And you're just over here waiting for this letter in the mail. And I was like, the trick is, man, don't care. Don't care. Didn't get into law school, no big deal. And then I got my score and I was like, it's fine. It's wild to think that the test changed that much, but the whole thing was a racket from the jump, man.

C (27:24)

Oh, of course. Every little piece of it. And the SAT has gone through multiple revisions over the years, and all the tests have. But the SAT specifically removed the essay requirement. They made the vocabulary less obscure. They added a no calculator, math section. And every time they change it, there's this wave of panic, like, the test is different. You have to buy new materials.

A (27:48)

Oh, man. No more lachrymose and perspicacious. I studied those words.

C (27:53)

Yeah. Sorry. Unless you throw one of them in this conversation, naturally and correctly, it was wasted effort.

A (27:59)

That's a perspicacious observation.

C (28:03)

I'm not embarrassed to say I don't even know what that means.

A (28:05)

Yeah, how Lachrymose, indeed. That you don't know what it means. But does it change that much? And if there are changes, do the prep materials stay up to date? How do you even choose between the 50 different brands of stuff for sale? Is one really better than the others?

C (28:18)

There are real differences between brands, but the marketing makes it sound like choosing between them is a life or death situation, which really, it's more like choosing between a Fuji or a Gala Apple.

A (28:32)

So they're the same, but some people prefer one over the other?

C (28:35)

Yeah, pretty much. Princeton Review is known for being strategy focused. They're all about test taking techniques, not knowledge. And Barron's is known for making practice questions way harder than the test so the test will feel easy. So some students lose confidence studying with Barons.

A (28:52)

Wait, so they set kids up to feel like failures? That's. Don't worry. It's for your own good.

C (28:57)

Yeah, unintentionally, I hope. But then there's Kaplan, which is the middle ground, and the book is really just an introduction to their online courses and tutoring. And then there's new players, like Prep Expert, which was founded by a guy who got a perfect SAT score, which his material mentions constantly.

A (29:17)

So annoying. Hi, I'm Chad. I got a 1600 on the SAT. Let me tell you my secrets, which are not just getting lucky and having a photographic memory.

C (29:25)

Don't date. But, yeah, none of that would work for me. But all the prep offers strategy, and some of it is useful, but some of it seems to be just motivational speaking disguised as prep. Believe in yourself and you'll score high. My favorite strategy tip from a real prep book I saw is try not to cry during the math section. It smudges the Scantron.

A (29:49)

Wow. Yeah, but that is good advice, though. Although number two pencil doesn't really smear that much with tears. Ask me how I know.

C (29:55)

Oh, no, I'm sorry. I mean, the best advice is only cry in the shower. I don't know. But as far as the books, the official College Board and ACT books, they just give you real practice tests with no frills, usually from Old, expired tests. Those are actually valuable because you're practicing with real questions.

A (30:14)

So that's what people should buy.

C (30:17)

It's a good place to start, no matter what. You don't need to buy all of them. The companies want you to think you need multiple books, several courses in app purchases, and social media validation. But they're all basically sharing the same strategies.

A (30:32)

So what should people watch out for when choosing prep materials so much?

C (30:36)

If a book or course promises to raise your score by 200 points, ask yourself, how could they possibly guarantee that for every student? They can't. So don't fall for secret strategies. They're usually things like read the question carefully. New editions are usually the same from five years ago, but the COVID says 2026 Edition and the price has gone up. And if anything says to always guess C. If you don't know the answer, return it or throw it out, because that is a myth.

A (31:07)

So that's not true, I take it?

C (31:08)

Yeah, it never was. The tests are designed so that answer choices are distributed evenly. But this myth persists because it gives students a sense of control. But it's false control. The good prep materials focus on actual skills and understanding. The bad ones sell you shortcuts and hacks that don't work.

A (31:28)

What a waste of money and study time. And the test prep books are marketed as some great equalizer. Like we said, can't afford a tutor, buy $100 book.

C (31:36)

And the book only helps if you have time to use it, if you have parental support. That quiet place, it just assumes a level of privilege that not all students have. And the bigger conversation is, why are we putting so much weight on a four hour test taken on a Saturday morning when you're 17 and it's usually

A (31:56)

like, be there at 7:30 and you're like, dude, my brain doesn't function. And so you're giving an advantage to people who happen to be morning people, which very few teenagers are. It's really stupid. I always thought that and I would get up super early and it's okay, I got to drink coffee and stuff. It was just totally ridiculous. And then you find Adderall and you're like, oh, okay, now it all makes sense anyway. When you put it like that. This is all insane. All right, that's high school. But what about when you're trying to get into a grad school? You got the gre, you got the gmat, the lsat, all that stuff.

C (32:26)

This is where things get more interesting because these tests are weird. Logic games, data interpretation, argument analysis. If You've never seen these formats before you take the exams, you're at a massive disadvantage.

A (32:41)

I remember the LSAT logic games. These are literally questions like if Alice sits next to Bob and Carol can't sit next to David, and Bob always sits next to both Frank and Alice. And you're like, ah, dude, get a bigger table. But it's a million of those and you have to draw them and things like that so that you can visualize it. Or it's just.

C (32:59)

Yeah, it seems absurd. But the thing is, these tests do measure something. So the logic games test your ability to work within complex rule sets and constraints, which is actually relevant to legal reasoning.

A (33:12)

So these tests are more legitimate than the sat.

C (33:15)

Not necessarily more legitimate, but they're testing different, more specialized skills. And because the formats are so unusual, prep materials can genuinely help. Repeated exposure to the same logical forms does improve performance. And good materials are written by actual instructors who've taught thousands of students and know exactly where people struggle.

A (33:38)

So there are good and bad options, even at that higher level?

C (33:41)

Oh, absolutely. The good ones break down the logic behind each question type show you why answers are right and why the wrong answers are wrong. And they give you strategies that are based on understanding, not tricks.

A (33:54)

And the bad books and courses, what do they do?

C (33:57)

They just make ridiculous promises. They go from 150 to 170 in four weeks. Which just ignores that you can't build fundamental reading and analytical skills in a month. Or they push pseudo scientific study systems. Use our left brain, right brain method.

A (34:14)

Right. Total nonsense.

C (34:15)

Yeah, complete nonsense. The whole left brain, right brain thing is a myth that's been debunked for decades. But it sounds scientific, so publishers still use it. And then there's the bundling and upselling. The book is just a funnel to get you to buy their expensive online courses, their secret question banks or their coaching packages. There's all kinds of stuff like that.

A (34:37)

It's kind of like a drug dealer. The first hit is cheap or free. But hey, if you want the good

C (34:41)

stuff, you know, that is the business model. And for grad school tests, it works because the stakes are so high. You're not just trying to get into college, you're trying to get into law school or med school or business school, which directly impacts your career and earning potential at this level.

A (35:00)

Each test has its own prep culture. There's more of a you will fail without this specific prep material mentality. Like I said when I took the lsat, even professors were like, you have to take a class for this, you have to. And I was like, oops.

C (35:13)

Yeah. And the LSAT crowd is particularly intense. There's this whole Reddit community where people compare scores, they share strategies, they just obsess over which prep materials to use. It's like a support group crossed with some insane competition.

A (35:31)

That sounds right because it's lawyers.

C (35:33)

Yeah.

A (35:33)

And so we are all hyper. Michigan was hyper competitive and people did crazy things. Apparently all like top tier schools are like this, where you'd go to the library and you go, I cannot find this reference material. And the librarian would go, okay, let me find it. And she would go and go, oh, it's missing. And you're like, okay, when do you think you might find it? And she goes, what is this for? And you're like, it's for an exam that's due tomorrow. And she's like, uh huh, okay, who's the professor? And you're like this person. And then she has to call and go, some asshole took the test book that all of your students need and hid it. And you're like, how do you know they didn't just check it out? Because you're not allowed to. It's reference, it stays at this desk. And I've been here for blah, blah, blah, which means somebody went and got it and stashed it. And like, it's a library, so there's no rfid. Now they probably have RFID or something, but like you have to look through the whole library and maybe they put it in their backpack. So like it's just gone. And so the professor has to email and be like, the deadline is now Tuesday. You don't need this. I've copied the relevant thing. Here it is. And if I find out who did this, I'm going to kill you. And they never find who did it because who's going to admit that they did that? How are you going to find a book that somebody threw in the forest? Now you could probably look on camera, but back then you couldn't. Anyway, that's just an example of the type of crap that would go down at Michigan. It was actually insane. Anyway, so what are the go to materials for the LSAT these days?

C (37:01)

The gold standard is the official LSAT prep tests, which is published by lsac, the organization that makes the test. So these are actual retired LSATs. So you're practicing with the real questions. Then you've got Power Score Bibles, Logic Game Bible, Logical Reasoning Bible, Reading Comprehension Bible that goes on and on. Bibles. Yeah, it's Fear Marketing at Its finest. But students feel pressure to buy four or five different essential books and courses per exam. And social media makes it worse. If you're not using what I'm using. Are you even studying?

A (37:39)

Yeah. Again, even using the word Bible is ominous. But I suppose they're comprehensive. That's the idea, definitely.

C (37:45)

But the problem is they're dense. We're talking 500 plus pages per book, and you're supposed to work through all three. There is the online LSAT trainer, which is more streamlined, or Manhattan Prep, which focuses just on strategy. But students stress about choosing the right test prep.

A (38:04)

Yeah, it must be extra complicated choosing GRE prep because it's the test for so many different master's degrees. It's just totally. It's one test for every graduate degree, almost. It's crazy.

C (38:14)

Yeah. And the prep materials for the GRE are interesting because they try to be this one size fits all. So they end up not great for anyone specific, but I guess it gets the job done. Practice tests are what preparing for the GRE is all about, because the GRE tests verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning, and the vocab is brutal. Like, for the gre, you do need to know lacrimose.

A (38:40)

Ugh. Okay, wait, I thought you said they took those words out of the sat, but. So the GRE still has all that crap?

C (38:46)

Yeah, yeah, they took them out of the sat, but the GRE loves them, so there are whole books dedicated just to GRE vocabulary. Students make flashcards, they use vocab apps like Magoosh, and they spend months memorizing words they will never use again.

A (39:03)

My GRE story is actually completely ridiculous. So what happens with the gre? At least back in the day, and it's probably still like this. If you did well in the beginning, it would get harder, and if you didn't do as well, it would get easier. So if you bombed a bunch of vocab words, they would get a little bit lighter. If you did well on a bunch of math, it would get a little bit harder. And for some reason, I bombed the vocab, which is weird because I have a decent vocab, but you're right, I didn't have lacrimose and whatever. All these other words at the tip of my tongue because I thought, oh, I did well on verbal sections before, I'll be fine. Not how it works with the GRE and with math, I was like, well, I'm not doing a math degree of any kind, so I just have to do not terrible. Or maybe they don't even care about that. So I took the math section, and I didn't really study for it, and I'm not good at math. Okay.

D (39:50)

At all.

A (39:51)

And I took the math section, and I was like, oh, crap. I didn't bring a special calculator for this. I don't really know how to solve any of this. And it's all multiple choice. So I'm guessing my way through the math section, and it's just getting more ridiculous. Like, it's. Instead of just a parabola, now it's got these symbols I've never seen before. And it's like, how is this happening? It went from algebra to way harder algebra and calculus to way harder calculus to way harder stuff that I don't even think is calculus because I've never seen it. Even though I took calculus in college. And I walked out of there just dizzy. And a couple weeks later, I get my results, and my math score is fire, like, off the charts good. And I ended up getting a letter from MIT that was like, we'll fly you out here, put you up in a hotel, or maybe it's a dorm, I don't know. We want you to take another special proctored math test, and if you do as well in that test as you did on the gre, we have a full or partial scholarship for you in one of our programs. So I guessed my way through the math section of the GRE so well that it caught the attention of MIT's mathematics program.

C (41:00)

Wow.

A (41:00)

And they were, like, dangling this scholarship in front of my face, which is actually hilarious because I didn't pass calculus, and I had a tutor for algebra in college. Okay. Like a hardcore tutor in high school for math. It's not my thing. That's a test design issue, first of all. If I can do that. But the fact that the whole test makes somebody like me bomb the vocab section and ace the math section, that was all the info I needed to know that this was complete nonsense.

C (41:28)

What is that about? Yeah, it's the ultimate fake it till you make it.

A (41:34)

Yeah. But it was also like, okay, this test doesn't do anything. Nothing that it's supposed to do, anyway. So is the GMAT any different? That's the business school one, right?

C (41:42)

Yeah, the GMAT's for business school. It's kind of its own special hell. It has this section called Data Sufficiency that literally makes people cry.

A (41:52)

We're unpacking how the test prep industry figured out how to monetize teenage panic. Let's take a quick break. So we can monetize something slightly less soul crushing. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by Wayfair. If you came over to our house, I could literally give you a Wayfair walking tour. Like those chandelier lights, Wayfair sink fixtures, Wayfair bathroom mirror, Wayfair our bed frame, Wayfair, even the kids outdoor toys and some of our outdoor decor. Wayfair again. And it wasn't some grand plan. It was just once you realize they're purpose built for home, you keep ending up back there. Because it's so easy. Wayfair has all things home. Every style, every space, every budget. So you're not bouncing between a bunch of different stores trying to piece everything together and hope it all matches. Plus the site makes it simple. There are a ton of options you can filter by color, style and budget so you're not doom scrolling for an hour. So if you're updating a room, moving into a new place, or you're just tired of running around to 10 different stores, Wayfair is basically the cheat code for all things Home.

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Got Homes.com is a sponsor for this episode. Homes.com knows when it comes to home shopping, it's never just about the house or the condo. It's about the homes. And what makes a home is more than just the house or property. It's the location. It's the neighborhood. If you got kids, it's also schools, nearby, parks, transportation options. That's why homes.com goes above and beyond to bring home shoppers the in depth information they need to find the right home. It's so hard not to say home every single time. And when I say in depth information, I'm talking deep. Each listing features comprehensive information about the neighborhood, complete with a video guide. They also have details about local schools with test scores, state rankings, student teacher ratio. They even have an agent directory with the sales history of each agent. So when it comes to finding a home, not just a house, this is everything you need to know all in1place.homes.com We've done your homework. Thank you so much for listening to and supporting the show. Your support of our advertisers keeps the lights on around here, keeps my kids flush with test prep, books and courses, all of the deals, discount codes and Ways to support the podcast are searchable and clickable on the website@jordanharbinger.com deals. Now back to Skeptical Sunday. What is data sufficiency?

C (44:06)

It gives you a question and two statements, and you have to determine if the statements together give you enough information to answer the question, but you don't actually have to answer the question.

A (44:17)

That actually sounds fun, if not a little confusing.

C (44:20)

It's definitely a little confusing, but it's really meta. So you're testing whether you can answer, not answering, and it breaks people's brains. The prep materials for the GMAT are all about mastering this weird format. Manhattan Prep Veritas, the official guide from gmac. There's Instagram and Reddit groups about the gmat, and they're just people stressing so hard. It's kind of entertaining to scroll through.

A (44:46)

Oh, God, I'm so glad I didn't have social media like that when I took the ls. That must make things much worse, because back then you'd go to your smart friends and go, oh, my God, what do I do? And they go, did you buy a prep book? And you go, yeah. And they're like, okay, are you going through it? And you're like, yeah. And they're like, you're gonna be fine. You're like, ugh. But if you go on social media, it's, did you buy 17 prep books? And did you go through the online course and did you get the CD ROMs? You know, that guy over here, he got a perfect score. So now they're changing the whole curve. This year, I heard they're going to give us less time. No, that's not true. How do you know? Like, it's just that over and over.

C (45:17)

You're just wasting all this time.

A (45:19)

Yeah. All your study time is you. Or all your sleep time is you stressing about this and reading people on Reddit who are taking it and heard from their brother's cousin's friend's uncle who knows a guy that works at College Board, that they're going to change the test this year. And it's like, no, they're not.

C (45:32)

Right. Yeah, social media definitely makes things worse. There's Discord servers, there's Facebook groups, and they're just sharing their own personalized study plans, but there's just this constant comparison. I'm taking this course. What are you using? Almost like test shaming or something?

A (45:51)

Yes. So now they're competing over who has the most elaborate study set up.

C (45:55)

Right. And it creates this anxiety spiral. You see someone post, I just scored a 175 on my practice test using power score Bibles. And you think, oh, no, I'm using something different. Maybe that's why I'm not scoring as high.

A (46:10)

Even though correlation doesn't equal causation, etc.

C (46:13)

Yeah, and maybe that person was already good at standardized tests. Maybe they're naturally strong in logical reasoning, but your brain goes, they have more prep materials and they're doing better, so I need to buy more prep materials.

A (46:26)

It couldn't be that they're just lying on the Internet to make other people feel bad. That never happens. It's the same psychology as seeing someone's perfect Instagram life and thinking your own life is inadequate by comparison. And there's a part of you that's like, I don't think she lives on yachts and at fancy beachfront hotels, but I don't know. It sure looks like she does.

C (46:43)

Oh, his kitchen looks like Home Depot. Yeah, but the prep companies love this because it drives sales. And they don't have to advertise. The students are advertising for them by posting about their materials online. And then there are really nerdy influencers, people who scored really high, and they now have YouTube channels or TikTok accounts where they share their study methods. And some of it can be helpful, sure, some of it's just humble bragging, but they all have affiliate links, Use my code for 10% off this prep course. So everybody's just making money.

A (47:18)

So now those people are profiting off of other fellow students anxiety. And the grift just goes deeper and deeper.

C (47:24)

Right? It really does. And look, I'm not saying all these resources are bad. Some YouTube channels offer genuinely free, helpful content, but it has become toxic in a lot of ways. Students feel like if they're not constantly consuming test prep content, they're falling behind. It's unhealthy. And it's the worst in the MCAT world. The MCAT is the medical school entrance exam, and it's part science test, part reading marathon, part experiment in human endurance.

A (47:53)

But it weeds out the week. Right? The exam itself is like, eight hours long or seven and a half hours long. But I want my doctors to have high MCAT scores so that I know they can think under pressure for seven straight hours. I think maybe that should be advertised when looking for a doctor. But then again, it is a test, and it's probably not a test of how good of a doctor you are.

C (48:12)

That's definitely why they hang their degrees on the wall. But studying for professional exams like mcat USMLE boards and the bar are intimidating by design. The sheer size of the book makes you feel like it must be comprehensive, it must have everything I need. But for something like the mcat, there is useful content in there. And the MCAT covers an insane amount of material. Biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, on and on. And good prep materials can condense that into digestible summaries and highlight the high yield topics.

A (48:51)

High yield Sounds like med school speak for this will definitely be on the test.

C (48:55)

Yeah, and students become obsessed with finding the high yield content because they can't possibly study everything in depth. And here's where it gets dark. The industry has created this culture of you will fail without this material. I saw a cover that really had printed on it in all caps, everything you must know or you'll die and so will your patients.

A (49:20)

That is terrifying. Buy this book or commit medical malpractice slash murder.

C (49:24)

It's fear marketing at its absolute finest. And for the MCAT alone, you might buy the Kaplan 7 book set, the exam cracker set, and then add the Princeton Review courses for good measure.

A (49:38)

Yeah, it's not reasonable to think you're going to go through all that prep

C (49:42)

and it's so expensive and nobody reads all of them. But there's this anxiety that if you don't buy them, you're not doing enough. Pre med students are all over social media too, posting their study stacks on Reddit and pictures of just bookshelves full of materials. You know, if you're not using Kaplan and exam crackers and this other thing. Are you even serious about med school? It's exhausting. And plus, some of these are total scams.

A (50:10)

Really. At that level, people are getting scammed.

C (50:12)

Oh, yeah. I mean, outdated material repackaged as a new edition with a higher price tag, materials that blatantly copy from each other, question banks that are poorly written and don't actually match the exam style. All of that can hurt your performance.

A (50:29)

So you can actually study the wrong way and end up doing worse?

C (50:33)

Yeah, absolutely. If you practice with bad questions or the wrong format, you're essentially training your brain incorrectly. It's like practicing basketball on a hoop that's two feet too low. Everything feels great in practice, and then you get to the real game and suddenly nothing works. There's actually a very public recent example of this. So Kim Kardashian failed the bar exam and said it was because she had studied with ChatGPT. So someone with every resource at her fingertips, and she now claims she failed because she was using the wrong preparation method.

A (51:09)

So wait, first of all, ChatGPT gives bar exam study advice and people are actually taking it. I mean, that's a you problem, dude.

C (51:16)

Apparently. Which? First of all, right, bold choice. And second, let's be clear, this was not a she had no resources situation. I bet she absolutely had tutors. Plural. Very expensive ones.

A (51:29)

Yeah, but as someone who like, made the test or something, I'm guessing they didn't want to be in the Instagram post announcing the fail failure of their student who is either too dumb to have succeeded or didn't study.

C (51:40)

No tutor wants that credit. But the larger point stands, AI is not a substitute for actual test prep. You know, it can hallucinate facts, give outdated information, misunderstand the format, or confidently explain the wrong answer. So it can be a tool. It's just not the only tool.

A (52:00)

The big test prep companies must know this. Come on.

C (52:04)

For sure. Kaplan, Barbri, all of them are already building their own AI systems. But those are being trained specifically on the test, the format, the scoring logic, not whatever the Internet happened to cough up.

A (52:18)

ChatGPT is like that one confident guy in class who won't shut up, but has clearly not done any of the reading.

C (52:25)

Yeah, there's always one of those guys. The takeaway here is that you can still fail if you prepare the wrong way. So quality is what matters.

A (52:35)

Oh, man. So don't lose your mind if you can't afford every bit of material out there. This leads us to something I'm wondering about just the mental health aspect of all this. There's gotta be a lot of stories about this.

C (52:46)

Yeah, it's brutal and a massive problem that doesn't get talked about enough. So students feel like if they're not constantly engaging with the prep material, then they're slacking. And it pushes already stressed students into guilt driven spending and overstudying. So burnout is real. And the books and courses themselves contribute to this. They're designed to make you feel like there's always more you could be doing.

A (53:11)

Preparation for the test alone is definitely

C (53:14)

its own source of stress and we're seeing real consequences. So test anxiety is through the roof. Students having panic attacks on test day, depression, burnout, imposter syndrome. Some students get so anxious they physically fall apart. There's reports of sudden migraines, nausea, shaking hands, racing heart, that awful feeling like you can't quite get a full breath. It's all incredibly common.

A (53:40)

People don't just get nervous though. Their bodies, straight up, revolt. During my lsat, I remember you sit down. And there's a guy next to you or something or a girl next to you. And the girl on my right didn't want to talk at all. She was just really, like, focused and looking at notes. And I was like, oh, don't talk to her. And the guy on my left was like, yeah, I'm already a lawyer. And I don't know. I remember this being, like, tough, but I took the California bar and I passed. And that guy left after, like, 20 minutes. He just got up and left. And I remember thinking, like, this is a long bathroom break. And then he just never came back.

C (54:10)

Yeah, I saw somebody walk out of the GRE, like, five minutes in, and they were visibly shaking. And I remember somebody barfing before it. People get freaked out, and it messes with your brain, too. There are plenty of documented cases of students just blanking on material they absolutely know. Many report staring at the page, unable to comprehend the test like it's written in another language. And others fixate so hard on the clock that they don't finish. And some people just shut down. And it can get even more extreme. There have been medical emergencies during high stakes exams. People fainting, people collapsing. None of this is uncommon.

A (54:54)

My cousin told me about this bar exam story where somebody basically had a heart attack taking the New York Bar. And everyone was like, still question number 10. Like, nobody did anything. Obviously people were freaking out, but not really stopping the exam. Do you know about this?

C (55:10)

Was this at Hofstra?

A (55:12)

Yeah, I think so.

C (55:13)

I was going to bring this up. It was a young, healthy woman who had graduated law school. Yeah. And she collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

A (55:23)

Yeah. So I heard about this. And I don't know if my cousin was there just telling me about this, because every law student in the world heard about it at the time, but, oh, my gosh, how terrible. Was she okay? I would like to think she's okay.

C (55:35)

She was okay. She was rushed to the hospital. But what shocked people wasn't just the medical emergency. It was that. According to everybody there. You can verify this with your cousin. The exam wasn't stopped, and students were told to just keep working while CPR was happening just a few feet away from them.

A (55:56)

That's actually insane. Nothing says professional responsibility like stepping over an ambulance gurney with a dying person on it to finish question 143. That's so weird.

C (56:07)

Yeah. And the incident triggered outrage across the legal community, but it did force the New York State Board of Law Examiners to say it was reviewing its procedures. I don't Know if anything actually changed. But it fueled a lot of calls for test reform. The clock should stop argument asking whether any tests should continue when someone's life is on the line.

A (56:30)

Yeah, that should not be up for debate. I don't know.

C (56:33)

Controversial take, but the pressure is immense. There might be some people in the room who'd be pissed if the test was stopped. So it goes both ways. But severe test anxiety, it even qualifies as an actual anxiety disorder. And students with diagnosed anxiety, they can sometimes get accommodations like extra time or a separate testing room, more breaks if they have documentation from a psychiatrist.

A (57:00)

But of course, getting that documentation also costs money.

C (57:04)

Yeah, the evaluation itself can be hundreds of dollars. So once again, wealthier students have an advantage.

A (57:10)

Of course they do. And it's students with health care. But in America, that means people who have money because they have health care.

C (57:16)

The test prep industry doesn't help. They sell materials full of this motivational content, but they don't actually address the root causes of the anxiety, which is the high stakes nature of the test itself and all this systemic pressure around it.

A (57:33)

So is there science on this?

C (57:34)

Oh yeah, there's tons of research. And the evidence is pretty clear on what works. Spaced repetition, active recall, and practice under test like conditions. Those are the big three. But everyone crams anyway. And the good prep methods, they all align with this.

A (57:51)

Students taking these exams, they don't need cheerleaders. They need somebody to explain why the answer is B and not C. If

C (57:58)

the material has lots of realistic questions with detailed explanations, that's a green flag. The courses should guide students to understand why things are right and wrong. If it spends more pages on branding and like proprietary systems than on actual practice, that's a big red flag.

A (58:17)

How should someone actually use test prep effectively? Is there any wisdom to that we can share?

C (58:22)

Yeah, there's a lot of thoughts on it. First, you don't want to read any material like a novel. So don't start on page one and read straight through. You want to start with a practice test to identify your weak areas, then drill those sections specifically. Always track your progress, make notes on the types of questions you're getting wrong, and adjust your study plan based on data, not feelings. The Feynman technique is great for complex topics.

A (58:53)

Named after physicist Richard Feynman. So what is that exactly?

C (58:56)

So you explain a concept as if you're teaching it to a child. If you can explain it simply, you don't really understand it. So you identify gaps in your knowledge and go back and study those specific areas. He was famous for being able to explain quantum mechanics in terms anyone could understand. And this process of simplifying complex ideas forces you to truly grasp them. There's also the Pomodoro technique for managing study time. You work in focused 25 minute blocks and then take a five minute break. That prevents burnout and keeps you from

A (59:32)

getting overwhelmed so you're not staring at the screen for four hours straight and retaining nothing.

C (59:38)

Yeah, right. And your brain can only focus intensely for so long, so short bursts with breaks are more effective than marathon sessions. And then there's interleaving, which means mixing up subjects instead of studying one thing for hours forces your brain to work harder to distinguish between concepts, which strengthens your understanding. So Instead of doing 50 math problems in a row, you do 10 math, 10 reading, 10 science, then back to math. And it feels harder, but the learning sticks better.

A (60:09)

This is bringing up some of my personal trauma from taking the bar exam. My God.

C (60:14)

The bar exam is its own beast. And it's not just about knowing the law. It's about knowing how to answer bar exam questions, which is a completely different skill, as you know.

A (60:26)

Yeah, so the bar tests your ability to apply legal principles to fact patterns under time pressure. So you could be a brilliant legal scholar and still, in theory, fail the bar because you don't know the specific format and the strategy. Or you just needed too much time because you take a lot of time to craft your arguments. And I'm sure, by the way, that that was Kim Kardashian's problem. I'm sure she was so thorough that she ran out of time.

C (60:50)

You're so kind. But this is why good prep is essential. So most people take a bar prep course like Barbri Themis Kaplan. These courses cost three to four grand and they basically consume your life for two to three months.

A (61:06)

We'll be back with more cheerful topics like inequality, manufactured scarcity, and teens crying in bathroom stalls at 6am but first, ads. We'll be right back.

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A (61:48)

And now for the rest of Skeptical Sunday. I remember the lectures and the practice questions and the simulated exams and the study schedules. They told me exactly what to do every single day. Today you're going to watch four hours of lectures and do 50 practice questions. It is exhausting, but it is structured and it's super expensive. Whoever decided preparing for a test should cost as much as a used car? It's that expensive. It's crazy to me.

C (62:12)

And there's a reason it got that insane. Barbri's parent company, West Publishing, they got hit with an antitrust class action.

A (62:21)

I know all about this because they have insane policies. And it was actually one of my buddies from my law school, he sued them.

C (62:28)

Oh, crazy.

A (62:29)

Yeah. And he got, like, a $60 million settlement. Because what they did is they agreed with other test prep companies. Hey, we are going to handle the bar, and other people can handle this other one. So there was no competition. So Kaplan was basically like, oh, we just won't have bar prep. We'll just let west do it. And in return, west was probably. I can't remember the exact details, but west gave Kaplan, I don't know, the MCAT or something like that. So they said, you guys, we're going to make more money if we don't compete. And we just actually collude, which is illegal. And so they carved at the market allocation. Less competition, higher prices, et cetera. And Wes paid into a settlement fund, but of course, denied wrongdoing. Bunch of dicks. But they had other insane policies, like for the bar. To take the New York bar, you had to go to New York. Imagine being a student and you have to rent an apartment in Manhattan for three months so that you can go to lectures and then study in that apartment. It's totally ridiculous. So this one enterprising gal in my class, what she did is she said, hey, there's enough of us that want to take the New York bar here at Michigan, send us tapes of the lectures, and we'll watch them. And they were like, oh, we have to be able to trust you, because if you make copies of the tapes, we could lose money and blah, blah, blah. So we all had to go and watch this tape in a classroom in Ann Arbor. So even people who lived in, I don't know, Alabama, had to stay all summer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, paying Ann Arbor rent and food, and study there instead of at home with their family or whatever so that they could watch two hours of VHS nonsense, take notes on it, and go home and study every day. And I Did not want to do that. And so I said, can't you just allow me to take these materials? I'm not going to share them. I'll pay for it. And they were like, no. And I said, what if I can't watch the tapes for some reason? And they were like, you would need a really good reason for that. And I won't say too much about how I gave them a really good reason for that, but they can't ask you to prove that really good reason. They tried, but then it was like, oh, and you also can't be in the continental United States or I think in like Paris or Berlin or whatever, where they also offer New York prep exam prep things. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna be in a Caribbean island. And they were like, B.S. i want a non refundable airline ticket and a hotel booking. So I went online and I bought a non refundable ticket and a hotel and I went to the Caribbean and I studied for the bar on the beach with an ipod. And they did not want me to do that. They even sent me all these like documents you had to sign and all this crap. And then they were like, and by the way, if you plug this ipod in, it's a special ipod that will call us and tell us that you're copying it and it'll destroy. And I was like, let me stop you right there. Apple's not letting you do that. And we both know that that's bullshit. So f you. And I'm going to copy this to another device and there's nothing you can do about it. And this company was crooked as hell and they charged you like extra to do it. And this is for disabled people. These people deserved to be sued into oblivion. And that's what my friend did, still exist.

C (65:28)

Good on your friend and good for you. I mean, going to the Caribbean for a couple months, way cheaper than New York.

A (65:34)

It was cheaper than staying in Ann Arbor to study. That's the most insane, ridiculous part is that's how much they're ripping you off everywhere. One of the best parts of this sort of legacy from my buddy's lawsuit is that Kaplan is now forced to offer bar prep. And so they are forced to compete with one another. I don't exactly know how you enforce that because can't you both just now charge way too much? Which is I'm sure what they do,

C (65:56)

but yeah, I don't know how much it costs now. No wonder the pricing is so deranged. Plus, even though one course provides all the materials. Some people, on top of these costs, they're buying extra books and courses because they're just so anxious about failing. And the advertising makes it seem like there's one piece of information inside that no other test prep has. The fact is, the bar exam is hard, and you need more than test prep to pass. The pass rate for the bar, it varies by state, but it can be low as, like, 40% in some places.

A (66:31)

Geez, that's terrifying. So you've already been through four years of college, three years of law school, and you might still fail. And if you fail, you have to take it again and you have to pay again, usually for the exam. Usually the prep, they let you keep it because you know you still have it. But then you got to deal with the shame and anxiety, so. Which, by the way, is not nothing, because everyone knows. I know what you're thinking. Oh, just don't tell people you failed. It's not quite that simple. Because if you fail, usually you've got a job offer before that. And so there was a woman at my law firm and another guy at my law firm, and our job started because they got a job offer, and the job's okay. What you're gonna do is study when you're not working. And basically, they just don't give those people any work. So you realize, like, oh, jt's not on any projects. Oh, yeah, he's for the bar. And it's like, oh, he failed the bar, because otherwise he would have taken it, you know, earlier, before the job started. And then you get people who fail again, and it's like, hey, we've been working here for a year, and you're just sitting in a room studying for the bar, getting paid, by the way, by the law firm. And that's kind of nice, but it also is totally counteracted by the fact that the entire office knows that you failed the bar exam two times.

C (67:40)

Yeah, the resentment.

A (67:41)

Yeah. So it's tough. And you feel bad because these are not dumb people at all, okay? These are smart people who made it through law school and failed the standardized test. The reason I'm giving Kim Kardashian extra sweat is, one, she's a billionaire and has resources to get a tutor. And two, I don't believe she went to law school. I think she's just taking the bar and being like, I don't need law school. Which is not true, apparently, given her first attempt was a giant mess.

C (68:07)

Yeah, in California, you just need a lawyer to sponsor you. Right?

A (68:11)

That's Right. And if you're Kim Kardashian, you can just ask one of Daddy's friends to say that you're good enough to practice law, and ta da, you're good enough to practice law as long as you pass the bar. So people throw money at any resources that might help, I suppose, when it comes to this, to avoid the shame, the anxiety, and dealing with. Is there anything in your $500 book that's not in a $4,000 course?

C (68:32)

Honestly, probably nothing. But it makes you feel like you're doing everything possible to pass and that peace of mind is worth something, even if the content is redundant.

A (68:44)

So it's like emotional support materials.

C (68:47)

Yeah. And look, I don't want to dismiss that entirely. If having that extra test prep reduces your anxiety and helps you feel more confident, that has value. The placebo effect is real. Even if it's a $500 placebo.

A (69:02)

Is it the same in other countries? Do international students who want to study in the United States, do they have the same hoops to jump through? I imagine they would.

C (69:08)

Oh, man. Yeah. International students applying to U.S. colleges or grad programs, they have to take all the same tests. Sat, gre, gmat, plus English proficiency tests like TOEFL or ielts, so they're taking more standardized tests. And the prep materials for TOEFL are their own industry. You've got books, courses, apps, all designed to help non native speakers improve their English skills. Specifically for this one test, is the TOEFL hard?

A (69:40)

That seems like it would be all that stuff. Seems like it would be hard.

C (69:43)

Yeah. I mean, it really depends on your English proficiency. But it's testing academic English, reading scholarly articles, listening to lectures, writing essays. And that's very different from conversational English. So you can be fluent in everyday English and still struggle with the toefl.

A (70:00)

So international students are. They're at a disadvantage from the start.

C (70:03)

Yeah, in many ways they are. And they're often paying international student tuition, which is significantly higher. So they're paying more money to face more barriers. And the test prep materials assume a certain cultural knowledge that international students just might not have, like referencing American history or literature that's not familiar to students from other countries. So that's a subtle disadvantage that native students don't even have to think about.

A (70:31)

Yeah. So it's not just language, it's cultural context, which is probably the argument for why the test used to be easier for white people. It's not just about sailing. It's about, who knows, other things that I didn't even notice because I don't know I'm white? I don't know. Or that argument was B.S. i don't know. I'm open to both interpretations.

C (70:46)

No, I think there's something to that. And for wealthy international students, this is where the tutoring industry really thrives. In countries like China, like you mentioned before, and South Korea, there's a massive test prep industry specifically for US college admissions. Some families are spending $100,000 or more just on tutoring and test prep. And they get admissions consultants just to get their kid into an American university.

A (71:15)

That's insane. So we've exported our inequality problem. You're welcome.

C (71:19)

Yeah, the American standardized testing system has just. It's a global industry.

A (71:24)

So is teaching to the test inherently bad? Because part of me thinks, okay, students need to pass this stupid test to move forward in life. Shouldn't we teach them how to pass it? I know I kind of asked earlier, but I'm still hung up on this.

C (71:35)

Well, on one hand, these tests are gatekeepers, right? If you don't pass, you don't get into college or grad school or whatever. So pragmatically, yeah, students need to learn how to take them. But teaching to the test, it means you're optimizing just for test performance, not for actual learning or understanding. You're teaching students tricks and strategies instead of critical thinking and deep knowledge.

A (72:01)

Is that so bad? If it gets them where they need to go.

C (72:04)

In the short term, no. But long term, those skills might not transfer. You've learned how to game the sat, but you haven't learned how to write clearly or think analytically. That'll probably come to bite you. Those are the skills you actually need in college and life.

A (72:21)

So we're trading real education for test scores?

C (72:24)

In many cases, yes. And students, they pick up on this. They learn that school isn't about curiosity or understanding. It's just about performing well on tests.

A (72:34)

That is depressing.

C (72:35)

Yeah, it is. And it kills intrinsic motivation. So students who might have loved learning, they become focused on grades and scores instead. Ideally, we'd have assessments that actually measure critical thinking, creativity, problem solving. But those are hard to standardize and expensive to grade. So we default to these multiple choice tests that are easy to score but limited in what they can measure.

A (73:02)

Is there any oversight for these prep companies? Can they just claim whatever they want?

C (73:06)

Pretty much. There's no governing body that vets claims. It's basically the nutritional supplement industry of education. Lots of marketing, little oversight, and when challenged, they hide behind disclaimers in tiny print. Results may vary. Individual success Depends on effort and aptitude or whatever they write.

A (73:27)

So they can be as dishonest as they want because there's just no consequences.

C (73:31)

There's some market consequences, but they only come in the form of bad reviews and word of mouth. But legally, they're mostly untouchable. There should be oversight at minimum, requiring evidence for claims like average score increases by so many points. But it's tricky because you get into free speech issues. Can the government tell a publisher what they can and can't claim about their book?

A (73:56)

So this is how people get scammed.

C (73:58)

Oh, yeah. Scammers will call parents saying, your child requested SAT prep materials through the College Board. We just need your credit card. They have names, addresses, school information, even the date and location of the scheduled test. So it all seems completely legitimate.

A (74:14)

Wow. So these are scammers that are getting this information as much as a company selling materials, right?

C (74:20)

Correct. The scammers are getting them from data breaches or purchase lists or just looking at social media at kids talking about when they're taking the test. So there's a whole underground market for student information. And once they have it, they use it to seem credible.

A (74:37)

That is evil. So they're preying on parents who are already stressed about their kids. Futures horse these bastards.

C (74:43)

And parents fall for it because the caller has really specific information. One parent told the Better Business Bureau, the guy who called knew my daughter's name, her school, her test date, everything. It seemed completely real. And he gave his credit card information. So you just have to really be weary of unsolicited calls. The real College Board will never ask for credit card information over the phone. The Better Business Bureau has received hundreds of complaints about this, and the emotional toll is huge. There's embarrassment in falling for a scam and the violation of trust. And it seems that these scammers never get caught.

A (75:24)

Yeah, I know. So is AI going to disrupt this entire industry as well? You know, speaking of ChatGPT.

C (75:30)

Yeah, but it could be used for good AI could provide personalized study plans, adaptive practice questions that adjust to your skill level, instant feedback on essay writing. And it could be way cheaper than these traditional prep courses. You could just hire a real human tutor.

A (75:49)

But I'm guessing the big companies will just charge the same amount and pocket the difference. Or they'll create a new tier. Premium AI tutoring. Five grand.

C (75:57)

Yeah, my money's on that outcome, unfortunately. But there's also a movement toward reducing the importance of standardized testing overall. More schools going test optional. More focus on holistic admissions that consider essays and extracurriculars and letters of recommendation.

A (76:15)

Do you think that's the future?

C (76:16)

I hope so, because at the end of the day, these tests are imperfect measures of very specific skills. They don't capture creativity or perseverance, leadership, emotional intelligence, any of the things that actually matter for success. But they are convenient for institutions and they're very profitable for companies that make them. So whether they're good for students is a much bigger question. Covid gave us a real world experiment. Colleges went test optional, admissions still worked, and surprise, the sky did not fall.

A (76:53)

So maybe we don't need them at all.

C (76:55)

Maybe not. Or maybe we just need to rethink what we're testing and how. But as long as these tests exist, the prep industry will exist too. Because fear plus confusion equals marketplace.

A (77:09)

That should be on a T shirt.

C (77:10)

Yeah, right. In the meantime, if you are prepping, just be smart about it. Look for materials that break things down by skill, not just by test section. You want to see things like reading comprehension, main idea, not just section one. Right? Do lots of practice questions that have clear explanations? Make sure the difficulty and format actually feel like the real test, not, you know, confidence inflating stuff. And just read reviews from real people on Reddit and College Confidential. There's all kinds of test prep forums, not just the marketing copy to look at. So you just start with those official practice tests. They're often cheap. Khan Academy is a great place to begin. YouTube also has genuinely excellent free content from experienced educators, especially for the high stakes exams so you don't have to spend a fortune. And if you do spend money, one good book or course used properly is better than five mediocre ones you never open.

A (78:12)

Test prep doesn't get you into college or grad school, you do. And these materials are just tools and not all necessary ones. So if anything promises to get you into med school, law school and Hogwarts, check the fine print. If test prep really worked the way it's advertised, nobody would ever take the test twice. Thanks Jess for helping us make the grade. And thank you all for listening. Topic suggestions for future episodes of Skeptical Sunday direct to me jordanordanharbinger.com advertisers deals, discounts, ways to support the show. All@jordanharbinger.com deals I'm JordanHarbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. You can find Jessica on her substacks between the lines and where shadows lingerie. We'll link to those in the show notes as well. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Tata Sidlauskis, Robert Fogarty, Ian Baird, Gabriel Mizrahi. Our advice and opinions are our own. And I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. And man, you don't want to see my LSAT score. Also, we try to get these as right as we can. Not everything is gospel, even if it is fact checked. So consult a qualified professional before applying anything you hear on the show, especially if it's about your health and well being. Remember, we rise by lifting others. Share the show with those you love. If you found the episode useful, please share it with somebody else who could use a good dose of the skepticism and knowledge we doled out today. In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn. And we'll see you next time. Urologist Dr. Justin Hooman reveals why fertility, testosterone and erections can be your earliest warning signs of heart and metabolic disease and why most men miss the signal.

D (79:43)

Our testosterone levels start to decline starting at the age of 30. We say 1 to 2% every year. The reproductive health is a snapshot of overall health. So if you do have low sperm counts, it's kind of a wake up call. Hey, fix your overall health picture. I try to keep it simple. What's good for your heart is good for your testicles. It's good for your sperm. So lifestyle is one of them. Within that I talk about diet, exercise, sleep and stress. Optimize your diet, minimize your processed foods, vegetables, lean protein, exercise wise, combination of cardio, heavy weightlifting, that's good for your hormonal health. We know you need good testosterone levels within the testicle in order to have good sperm health. Testosterone replacement therapy that shuts down your testosterone. There's genetic aspect to sperm health. There's not much you can do from a genetic standpoint. And then supplements is something a lot of guys talk about. So there's certain supplements within the fertility category that can help. That's how you optimize. There's no question about it. We're unhealthier, right? We're less healthy now than we were 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, we're eating more processed foods. We wake up, we're sitting at a desk all day, coming back, watching Netflix all day and rinse and repeat. That's the whole thing. It's unhealthy living, really. It's poor food, poor exercise, we're consumed by screens and all of that just ultimately leads to unhealthy life. Men really aren't engaging the healthcare system, but at the end of the day, it's not so objective as your cardiovascular health. We've been reproducing for however long as humans, all you really got to do is what's good for your heart health. Your overall health is good for your reproductive health.

A (81:11)

Whether you're in your 20s, your 40s, or facing infertility, episode 1254 of the Jordan Harbinger show could change how you think about men's health. If you like this show, there's another podcast you should check out. If you want to stay informed about what's happening around the world without drowning in noise, check out the President's Daily Brief. It's built for people who want the big stories fast and clear. Think 20 minutes in the morning, then a quick 10 minute update in the afternoon. Just focused coverage of the developments shaping the world right now, from the Middle east and Venezuela to China, Russia and beyond, with an emphasis on what actually has real world consequences for the United States. The show's hosted by Mike Baker, a veteran of the CIA with decades of first hand experience. So you're getting smart analysis from somebody who's been inside the system. You get straightforward context to help you understand what's happening and why it matters. Follow the President's Daily Brief wherever you get your podcasts and stay ahead of the curve. If you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why, hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. With on time restocks, your team will have the cut resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift and you can end your day knowing they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.