<p>With all due respect, you can’t be an idiot and get a 2300 on the SAT. The whole issue of test prep is way overblown–especially for the math section. It’s not an automatic thing–you don’t get a 2300 just from test prep. Working hard in school and engaging yourself intellectually are also key. The quality of your high school does matter, although you see people who go to bad high schools score high. I tested in the 1400’s (out of 1600, recentered) after 1 semester of high school. (I needed to take it to get admitted to a magnet school.) I doubt that it was that one semester of high school that was responsible for it. </p>
<p>Naturally, your math score won’t be as high if you don’t get that far in the math curriculum. And going to a poor school can impact it too.</p>
<p>However, it just seems that people want to discount <em>every</em> measure of intelligence with some excuse. </p>
<p>I would agree that grades, rank, SATII’s are important, but the SATI does mean something as well. It’s not like an IQ test that puts your intelligence in stone, but it does say something about your intellectual level at the moment. </p>
<p>I’m pretty tired of all the bashing of high academic performers on CC, especially from those who want to go to prestigious schools. They enjoy it when people assume they are smart because they attend such schools, but they hate smart people themselves.</p>