Here is a quote from Mr. Bruni’s latest book: “If you hold up certain metrics as the very determinants of children’s futures, if you invest those metrics with too much importance and allow too blinding a focus on them, don’t you essentially instruct those kids to define and see themselves in terms of those very measurements?”
Outstanding students have a variety of skill sets. Some are great test takers, some are excellent complex problem solvers and others have other talents. Ideally these should all be accounted for.
Having screened thousands of applications for medical school and resident applications there are times it would be assure to pick the students who have the best GPA and MCAT/USMLE scores and choose them for interview/admission. Experience has taught me that good test takers are sometimes just that and there are many “diamonds in the rough” who have lesser scores but are much better learners.