I don't think NACAC is equivalent to the API. It's not like college counselors are the ETS—in fact, many counselors complain about how much some students focus on the SAT.
As for your anecdotal evidence, it sounds pretty flawed to compare results on the PSAT to the SAT directly—I also got a much higher score on the SAT without doing any studying at all, probably because they're scored and weighted entirely differently. Moreover, if this comparison was done over a year (ex. sophomore to junior year), the results are likely even more flawed—there's too much confounding development in that year to attribute the increase to SAT prep.
Anecdotally, I know I did much better than all of my friends who spent months studying for the SAT and drilling on vocabulary, math, and strategy. If the SAT is so game-able, they should have overcome me.
As for your anecdotal evidence, it sounds pretty flawed to compare results on the PSAT to the SAT directly—I also got a much higher score on the SAT without doing any studying at all, probably because they're scored and weighted entirely differently. Moreover, if this comparison was done over a year (ex. sophomore to junior year), the results are likely even more flawed—there's too much confounding development in that year to attribute the increase to SAT prep.
Anecdotally, I know I did much better than all of my friends who spent months studying for the SAT and drilling on vocabulary, math, and strategy. If the SAT is so game-able, they should have overcome me.