[MarcoSanto]

It'a sunken cost effect at paly, little more than that. Oh, and parents pressure, least we forget the role of family. You can test my claim empirically by asking yourself: "are all college graduates I met more intelligent than me?". Admission test measure how well you can prepare for admission tests, nothing more. There are too many confounding factors and co-factors that play in the career of a relatively fresh semi-adult aged 17-18, that reducing it to a single number is just moronic or bad-faith utilitaristic escape route. Universities only care that you graduate so they can make money, therefore they use the simplest KPI to measure that. Let's not forget Universities are staffed with people and are a business.

[411111111111111]

It's unlikely to be a sunken cost fallacy.

You're technically right with "Admission test measure how well you can prepare for admission tests, nothing more.".

It's definitely not a silver bullet and doesn't assure success after admission. nonetheless, the ability to prepare for these tests is strongly correlated with success along this path.

If they can't be arsed to prepare for them they're unlikely to bother with studying either, making their admissions pointless too.

And if they attempted to prepare for the test but still failed... Then they're unlikely to be able to learn in the University setting either and should follow up on other avenues.