“Frankly, “national exams” in most foreign countries are worth zero in the US”
The above is not true. Well at least if I am to take Robin Worth’s (director of international admissions) word for it. She said while everyone is required to take the SAT, if you don’t do that greatly at it they will look at other parts to see what “kind of thinker you are.”
Simply put, @Oddenigma , I don’t think your score will be THAT impressive that it would tip you over as certainly a lot of Africans and internationals in general applying to Harvard will place in the top 0.01% of their cohort. Certainly if you were 1st in your country in the national exams it would be a different story. But as @MYOS1634 has said, I think all this means is they would have looked at your application and noted you are capable of handling the work at Harvard and then moved on to the rest of your application to look at what really matters— your character and fit.