I'd think it's less about test prep than it is about a stable home and family environment, how well/poorly local schools are funded, access to public libraries and the leisure time required of both parent and child to able to use all of the above. All of which is a lot more than $650 and all of which favors wealthier people.

$650 is a lot of money for a lot of people

In a lot of places these days it's really easy to get a $15/hr job (I mean that's like entry-level fast food work, ubering, etc.) So $650 works out to slightly more than a week's work, be super conservative with taxes/expenses/benefits and let's say 2 weeks.

So 2 weeks' work is a considerable amount of work, but it's also certainly within the realm of possibility for the vast, vast majority of people. I'd really say this just highlights how some communities value educational attainment and others do not.

Sure, it's much easier to come up with $650 if you're rich than if you're poor, but that's true of just about anything. $650 is certainly within the reach of nearly everyone, it just depends on whether your parents are willing to sacrifice for it.

I could afford private flights on my salary, for my example, and it’s true: “it’s just more hours.”

The only thing is… I can’t find more hours in my week.

And the real bigger issue is, even through I can afford it, it may be hard to justify it because it amounts to a major opportunity cost.

For a working class family, they probably are going to find it difficult to source $650. …Especially if no one has gone to college and no one even knows the importance of that $650.

If $650 seems like nothing, all that you are saying is that your social group is limited to people who find $650 to be nothing. It’s like the Lucille Bluth banana quote in living…

Nobody is saying it’s nothing. But virtually nobody is so poor that saving up $650 per kid one time is beyond teach.

Money helps with any metric.

If your GPA is bad, a tutor will help far more with GPA than test prep will help with your SAT and cost far more.

School project, if you live in a household where one parent doesn't have to work, they can basically do your whole project moving a 50 to a 95.

Extra curriculars, these require a large investment of time and money that is harder for a single working parent to pull off.

College entrance essays. You can literally just pay someone to write them.

You can't look at SATs in a vacuum. You have to compare it to the other possible metrics which all privilege the privileged more.

Not really, for a one-time per kid expense. Asian immigrants are among the poorest people in NYC and they scrape it together.

Who is downvoting this?