Within the range of very high scores (I'm assuming you mean 1500+ excluding the W section) there is so little differentiation between candidates that anything o

Within the range of very high scores (I'm assuming you mean 1500+ excluding the W section) there is so little differentiation between candidates that anything outside of a perfect score is unworthy of comment. I would wager that the majority of students scoring in the 95th+ percentile are not who the College Board is targeting with this reworking of the exam. The difference between a 2200 and 2400 is insignificant on an application also sporting four years of perfect grades (or the stereotypical entrepreneur's report card of F's and A's) and voluntourism in sub-Saharan African. What they seem to be aiming at is limiting the benefit of tutoring in the middle of the bell curve. The SAT is not a difficult test – there is no vocabulary in the CR section foreign to the average middle-brow New Yorker reader and the Maths section is as near a verbatim review of Massachusetts' 8th Grade Algebra I curriculum as you can find. Lazy but capable students who have otherwise been well-educated are enjoying the greatest boon from test practice, and this seems aimed at creating a more level playing field for those who are unable to afford such specialised tutoring. Whether it will have much effect is anyone's guess...for those most affected by the inequity of US public schooling, I doubt a few months practising process of elimination and test taking strategies is going to rectify years of substandard tuition