<p>Taking an SAT prep course as a SCHOOL course rather than taking a Shakespeare course? That’s idiocy, but I don’t think college admission processes should be blamed for that, especially because PSAT scores don’t play any role in college admission and ALL admission officers who speak to the public say that the best single thing a high school student can do to prepare to make a successful college application is take challenging courses in high school. </p>
<p>After edit: the link given by asteriskea leads a page on the Education Conservancy site which in turn has a dead link. Not much to look up there about the “research” project.</p>