<p>My friend and I are having a pretty heated and nasty debate about scores and numbers - and I would appreciate your input - especially if you have a xanga username, in which case you can leave a comment.</p>
<p>… Thank you in advance. I probably sound extremely superficial - but would you all agree that scores are, to a certain extent, a really good indication of how hard one works? My friends seem to disregard that.</p>
<p>By the way, her PSAT score is a 229, and mine is a 236 - and her class rank is 5 and mine is 2 - so you can understand the tension already.</p>
<p>Scores are an indicator of how well you do on the tests, not how hard you work. I know some people who devote months to studying for the SAT yet can’t break a 1300 while others don’t study at all and get 1550+. The difference between a 236 and a 229 is negligible at best, and, although more important, the difference between a rank of 2 and 5 is also very slight. From what it sounds like, both of you have very good scores and should not be arguing about the matter. It may help if you’re not so melodramatic about it all (a la “It still does not matter. Life does not matter.”)</p>
<p>scores/numbers mean everything. when you were little tyke, you memorized trading card stats. when your a teenager, you memorized sports figures. when your a young adult, you memorized numbers from hobbies (engine specs) or focused on your grades. as an adult, you are totally devoted to the 5 (or 5 or 7…or 4 for that matter) digit number that you see once a year (hint: $$$). as a member of the senile community, youll be constantly aware of your age, or maybe even a countdown. </p>
<p>my point being numbers mean everything to us. it defines us and labels our personality.</p>
<p>I have always been one to value numbers, though, whether the difference is “negligible” or not. After all, the difference between the gold and silver in the olympics - as in many other competitions - is only fractions of a point. </p>
<p>I agree that test scores are not the ultimate indicator of how hard one works. Of course not. It’s how well you take the test (as Princeton Review stresses incessantly). … however, test scores are one measure of how hard you do work - among other numbers, like class rank and GPA.
I also agree that there are anomalies, the ones who “know” everything without “working hard”. </p>
<p>If we did not use numbers to compare ourselves, though, I think we would lose all basis of comparison. Even dance and figure skating competitions are judged ultimately by a point and percentage system. </p>
<p>Although I think I have strayed from my initial point quite a bit.</p>
<p>I do believe that the SAT is a measure of natural aptitude/intelligence. People who score well on the SAT are naturally smart. However, the converse (or is it contrapositive??) is not necessarily true. </p>
<p>But I think college adcoms place too much significance on SAT scores. So what if a person is naturally smart? Natural smarts will only take you so far. It’s more about how much dedication you want to put into your studies.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there really is no good measure of that.</p>
<p>I agree with mosby. There are anomolies on both ends of the spectrum, but the correlation between SATs and other academic and intellectual indicators is impossible to ignore. I guess this is easy to say when you have good scores, but that’s something I can’t escape. If you think this is biased, so be it. There are different types of intelligence too, many of which cannot be measured by the SAT. Having a bad score doesn’t mean you’ll always fall to the left on every bell curve out there.</p>
<p>As for the abstract concept of “numbers” being important or not, it’s just that, abstract. They’re important when you apply to college or when you pay your taxes or when you want to buy a house. But it’s not going to make the bus come any faster or change the way you solve problems and it will only affect your happiness if you let it. In some cases you should let it, in others, you shouldn’t. Losing all your savings right before you have to pay off a large debt or getting an 800 on the SAT when you really want to go to a great university are good reasons to fret. But being 5th in your class compared to someone who’s 2nd is trivial. Giving an absolute answer to the question of “numbers” being important is silly.</p>