> I think what might actually be hard to game is teacher recommendations. After all these people have been with the kid for a long time and know what they can d

> I think what might actually be hard to game is teacher recommendations. After all these people have been with the kid for a long time and know what they can do. They also tend to be distanced enough that they don't have to say good things about every kid. How can you compare recommendations from different teachers? The whole point of the SAT is that it is a single number: you can compare SAT results from different schools and see which children are better at taking the test. > If you have a look at one of these tests, it's pretty clear you benefit from practicing. Like just about any test, if you've done it before you are at an advantage, the more the better. Yes, but you can't get from 500 to 1500 by practicing. You can probably get from 1450 to 1500, but that's just a few practice sessions to learn what the questions look like, how to fill in the answer sheet, how to tackle the most common ones.