<p>^nope today my best friend got into Stanford with an 1800 sat score and this girl got into yale with barely a 2000. its not exaggeration, they had lives and cared about other things besides test scores too.</p>
<p>I think what xmas is saying is that a perfect score doesn’t mean that the applicant is obsessed with test taking. He/she might just be naturally smart, and also have a life and care about lots of other things.</p>
<p>Test scores DO matter. How much they matter no one outside of the admissions offices will ever know. For those who say “I don’t think they should matter because some people just aren’t good test takers,” you need to remember that you’re going to college. Tests are a big part of that. So if you want to go to a top tier school and do well, you’d better be a good test taker.</p>
<p>That being said, just take the test, try your hardest, and don’t take it more than 2 or maybe even 3 times. Since you don’t know what you’ll get, setting an unrealistic goal based on speculation might just lead to disappointment. If you care enough about your future to be on this board asking questions, you should be fine.</p>
<p>I know someone with a 4.0 and a 2400 who got rejected from Yale, so there truly is no “safe zone”.</p>