Except you can buy your way into tutoring too, and pay for test accommodations, and so forth and so on.
I don't buy this. It's like saying someone has a remarkable physique or remarkable fitness only because they used PEDs when it actually requires a significant amount of effort and discipline regardless of what's in the gas.
Certainly targeted studying, tutoring, test accommodations, etc. can help. But the difference is at the margins.
It certainly helps to have some familiarity with standardized tests, particularly to take the PSAT and then take the SAT multiple times. Some people "freeze up" in that environment or they don't understand the strategy of "I've eliminated 3 out of 5 options, I should guess one of the other two".
Test prep helps the average person test at their level, but there are some people who can at best make excuses like "I must have skipped a line when I was filling out the form" and for those people the one thing that helps is hiring a ringer to take the test for them.
School on the other hand offers vastly greater options for people to turn financial and social capital into false achievements in terms of chiseling for grades, expensive sports and other activities, etc.
I don't buy this. It's like saying someone has a remarkable physique or remarkable fitness only because they used PEDs when it actually requires a significant amount of effort and discipline regardless of what's in the gas.
Certainly targeted studying, tutoring, test accommodations, etc. can help. But the difference is at the margins.