<p>This is my rating from most to least important</p>
<p>Prep
Intelligence
luck</p>
<p>I have examples on all. This one kid at my school never practiced, not even once, and he beat me on the math section (I guess he’s a genius at math, and I am truly not so great) but I beat him on both english related sections because I did practice. Intelligence does matter, usually because intelligence IS paired with a keen eye, but in the end prep beats it. You have to know how the test is organized and what type of questions are asked in order to make the best possible score for you. Taking it without practice won’t help you at all, even if you are intelligent.
Luck DOES play a factor, though a minor one, in the end. If you get passages that you are at least somewhat familiar with, if you get vocab that you know, if you get sentence corrections that you know the diff between nominative and obj. case, if you get questions about triangles and you are good at those, then you’re likely to score better. That IS luck, though that is overcome by practice.</p>
<p>Though I am compelled to make another point, a little off topic, I admit. Whoever said that a score of 2250 (or something around there?) is mediocre, wow? Scores in between 2050-2300 are NOT mediocre. I feel a little insulted by this, and I’m sure a lot of people do. I may not get into Harvard or Yale (not that I am the least interested in those colleges), but with my, at least 2100, I get a full ride scholarship in a tier one university, with tuition, room, food, travel expenses, books, one year study abroad anywhere I want, leadership conferences every friday, opera/symphony tickets, and that’s just the beginning. Yeah, the score wasn’t a perfect score, but my experience in college will not be reflected by a perfect score. And yeah, how many people actually get above 2300? Come on, let’s be realistic here. Full ride scholarships like this one are not easy to come by (in fact, I read that there are only 2 like this one in the entire country, with the full experience, though I may be wrong) and the coordinators of these programs KNOW that most of the kids (they select about 20) won’t get 2400, but they may get a 2200, so they set the minimum at 2100. Just because you don’t have a perfect score doesn’t mean you won’t graduate suma cum laude, or won’t be involved in labs or extracurriculars. A score is, indeed, just a score.</p>
<p>And last, scores are the great equalizer, sadly. I come from a really small rural school (only 47 in my grad class) and I have to compete with others from schools that have awesome math, science, and english programs. It isn’t exactly fair, but it makes sense. Because each person’s environment is different, they want to see how we compare to one another, and then pick the best. But in the end, SAT isn’t number one, let’s not forget that. They do take into consideration what you have done for your community, etc etc…</p>