From Quora: My Answer to "Why doesn't a perfect SAT or ACT score impress you?"

https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-a-perfect-SAT-or-ACT-score-impress-you/answer/John-Linneball?​__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=4992712268

Objection, Your Honor! The question assumes facts not in evidence! ;-) A perfect SAT or ACT score is impressive, since either you’re very talented, very hard-working, or likely both.
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However, as Jennifer Levitt put it, low grades and a high SAT or ACT mean you’re probably pretty lazy, even if you’re smart, which isn’t going to get you very far in life, and retaking the test many times to make a trivial improvement (say, 99th percentile to a perfect score) means that either you or your parents have no idea how to use your time constructively.


As everyone’s already put it, a perfect SAT or ACT score says NOTHING about whether you’re a nice person. I’ve met many very smart people who are not nice people. Believe me, I’d rather have a stupid person try to trick, scam, or otherwise harm me than have a smart one do the same.


It also doesn’t tell me that much about your “interpersonal intelligence” - basically your ability to get along with other people, to negotiate without being scammed, and to use other important social skills. You might call these skills “wisdom.” The wisest people I’ve known weren’t always the most intelligent in an academic sense. Some were, but others were fairly mediocre students. Intelligence is not a substitute for experience, or even learning by observing the experience of others. Intelligence would make it easier to learn by observation, but that doesn’t mean intelligent people will actually do so.


As an aside, having high interpersonal intelligence also does not necessarily mean a person is nice - sociopaths are very good at “reading people,” but they’re also completely conscience-free, so they make great con artists and serial killers. They also do well in politics, law, medicine, and business.


The ACT and SAT don’t measure mental health, emotional maturity, readiness for college or university study, and the like. For example, a student who’s been pressured all his life to get perfect grades and SATs might rebel in a HUGE way once he’s away at a college where there’s no one on his back all day… “You mean I can go to a party and drink beer until I puke? BRING IT ON!” Or the kid may just be a “gunner” who burns out during college or shortly thereafter and doesn’t make it very far in life.
The tests also don’t measure athletic or artistic abilities, which matter in life for purposes of balance, self-expression, and health.


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