Is Test Prep Undermining Equal Opportunities in Higher Education Admissions?

In the ongoing debate about fairness in admission procedures, high school grade point average (HSGPA) is often criticised. Wealthier families can afford to send their children to high-performing schools, provide extra support, build relationships with teachers, and invest in shadow education — all of which can result in higher HSGPAs, even when talent is equal.

As UNESCO (2006) pointed out, privatised shadow education can harm educational systems by undermining equality of chances.

Admission tests, on the other hand, are often considered a way to promote fairness, as they are designed to be objective measures of talent. Yet, the test prep industry raises concerns: wealthier applicants may have more resources to invest in test preparation, potentially skewing results and compromising equality of chances. But how significant are the effects of test prep?

Here are some key empirical findings:

🔵 Small positive effects of test prep were found for tests like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the American College Testing (ACT), and the Test for Medical Studies (TMS).

🔵 Small negative correlations between preparation time and test results were observed for the Graduate Test for Economics and Social Sciences (GTEBS).

🔵 No significant correlations were found between test prep and results in field-specific complex problem-solving tasks (e.g., analyzing graphs and tables with discipline-specific content).

🔵 The effectiveness of test prep methods varies: for the TMS, preparing with books was more effective than attending preparatory courses.

These findings suggest that the impact of test prep is often much smaller than claimed by preparatory course providers — and in some cases, may not exist at all. Based on current evidence, admission tests do not appear to negatively impact equality of chances as a result of test prep effects.

However, this is not the end of the story. Ongoing research is essential. In a current project we are directly surveying test takers about their socioeconomic status to better understand whether and how admission tests influence equality of chances. The first results from this project will be available later in 2025.