[noch]

> […]it is ridiculous that one of the main metrics used in admissions is a glorified IQ test.

SATs are a good measure of General Intelligence (and IQ).

“ This research established the relationship between SAT and g, as well as the appropriateness of the SAT as a measure of g, and examined the SAT as a premorbid measure of intelligence. In Study 1, we used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Measures of g were extracted from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and correlated with SAT scores of 917 participants. The resulting correlation was .82 (.86 corrected for nonlinearity). Study 2 investigated the correlation between revised and recentered SAT scores and scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices among 104 undergraduates. The resulting correlation was .483 (.72 corrected for restricted range). These studies indicate that the SAT is mainly a test of g. "

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0956-7976.200...

[erosenbe0]

Maybe not in the top decile we are discussing here.

Things like age and prep time matter a lot.

I skipped two grades so I took the SAT at age 15 without studying, did well enough, and went to one of the top state schools for CS at the age of 16.

I took the intro to CS weed out class first year and got the highest score by a mile.

[noch]

> Maybe not in the top decile we are discussing here. Things like age and prep time matter a lot.

Not really. Of course studying for any test and preparing strategically/emotionally/psychologically makes one able to perform at their potential. If you didn't study, didn't prepare, don't know how to sit for a test or what the test will look like, no one expects good performance. Even though I run several miles every day, I'm never going to have the innate ability of an East African long distance runner.

Your extraordinarily excellent performance was not about your preparation but about your brilliance.

“

Yet research has consistently demonstrated that it is remarkably difficult to increase an individual’s SAT score, and the commercial test prep industry capitalizes on, at best, modest changes [13,17].

Short of outright cheating on the test, an expensive and complex undertaking that may carry unpleasant legal consequences, high SAT scores are generally difficult to acquire by any means other than high ability.

”

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/7/4/26/htm