But wasting your time is not the worst thing the educational system does to you. The worst thing it does is to train you that the way to win is by hacking bad tests. This is a much subtler problem that I didn't recognize until I saw it happening to other people.

This is on purpose. The state wants you to think cleverly exploiting the system is the answer, not realizing the system is a scam which serves no one.

This is also why society is infested with beta males. I can hack my way to love!!! Dumbass.

So as a first approximation, bad tests are roughly equivalent to tests imposed by authorities.

Bingo.