But with 2 tests how can you say one is a bad day vs the norm and one wasn’t a lucky day? If both tests show high verbal and reading scores, then you could say with a fair amount of certainly that the knowledge is there. But if a section has a fair amount of discrepancy between scores, how can you say either show actual level knowledge, and which one shows is a true portrayal of that knowledge? As I said, cramming for a month and doing well for one day means nothing if you don’t retain that information. You can’t see retainment of knowledge in a single test. The information is about as useless as drawing names out of a hat. Great so, let’s say he scores a 70 or even a 75 on the math after memorizing a bunch of things for the test day. He gets into a program he wants and they expect him to have this knowledge of math at a level that he showed on this one Saturday in December but because he stuck what he read into his short term memory, he doesn’t have a clue when he’s thrown into some higher than his level math class come Fall. A single good test score has little context on its own and pairing that with a poor test score from a different day but same exam makes even less sense. By your method, if he all of a sudden scores lower the second time in verbal, does that mean he know doesn’t know as much as he did a month prior? Is the kid suffering from amnesia? Is he incapable of focusing on many things at one time, the first time verbal and the second time math? One fabulous test score doesn’t make a kid a genius just as one poor test score doesn’t make a kid incompetent (not saying you said that btw).