<p>^^^ But they aren’t the same kid. I have three. Oldest is somewhat naturally gifted, took the test once, did well by normal standards (not cc standards) and was happy. He was accepted, got merit aid and is doing ok at the level college he made it in. His GPA matched his scores.</p>
<p>Middle son has similar talents, but is super self-motivated. He took the test once cold, almost matched oldest’s score (but was two years younger in school) and was not satisfied. He worked his tail off filling in the few gaps he had. He puts the same effort into anything he does. He got a tippy top score and had the GPA to match. He’s doing very well at his higher level college.</p>
<p>Youngest is pretty much equally talented, but only puts top effort into things he loves. Prepping for tests is not one of those, so he won’t. His scores are likely to be the lowest of the three (unless his attitude changes), but it matches what he will do in college. He’ll succeed well in a college that matches him, but top colleges aren’t it (unless he can pick only classes that interest him).</p>
<p>For a typical state school - non flagship? You don’t need stellar scores/GPA. For the top schools, they’ll often want high scores AND a high GPA showing both knowledge and the ability to work well for teachers. A low GPA should throw a red flag to those adcoms.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen working in a high school for years, scores do tend to correlate with ability (though a 50 pt SAT difference is not enough of a difference). They do not show work ethic - that’s their drawback.</p>