Does anyone else suspect (as I do) that this might be exaggerated or fictionalized?
Try fantasised. This is some odd ball's fantasy.
No. But it's a very lopsided view of these kids lives. Kids who are attending a school like Stuyvesant, and doing well, spend the vast majority of their waking hours poring over calculus and chemistry books, prepping for SATs, sitting in class paying very close attention and taking careful notes, etc. The wild hijinks that this article devotes 95% of its space to, occupy only about 5% of the space in these kids lives. And all the posters wailing "Oh how awful, civilization is coming to end", are going to be in for a rude shock 15-20 years down the road, when their kids are applying to these kids for jobs.