Originally Posted by Bostonian
The SAT was recentered in 1995. Verbal scores of 730+ and math scores of 780+ became 800s http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/equivalence-tables/sat-score .

Which implies that it's a sort-of IQ test with a very low ceiling. I say "sort of" IQ test because it measures knowledge that no one is born with (e.g. vocabulary, geometry) as much as stuff that's more innate (e.g. the ability to see relationships).

I think of tests like the SAT and GRE as being very good discriminators of averageness.