<p>Edad - I completely agree with you. But you’d be amazed at how many students think minor percentile differences in the SATs show a real difference in intelligence. They would look at a 1600 as “better” than a 1570, and 1350 as terrible, when in reality the scores often depend on the day - literally. That’s why adcoms know what students do not, which is that the scores show a RANGE: a 1350 is seen as “really” a 1300-1400 at least, and perhaps even a 1250-1450.</p>
<p>Marite - very good point. My sister’s town’s high school prints a bar graph on the transcript showing both weighted and unweighted GPA, the bars representing the # of kids getting each grade. The unweighted graph clearly shows that a B+ is the “default” grade, with most kids getting that or above – very weighted to the far right of the graph! But the weighted grade shows something much closer to the bell shaped curve - the whole graph shifts to the left. I think these bar graphs also help to put things in perspective.</p>