"do you want to be a member of a club for which that's the entry test?". Maybe 700 on the SAT once meant being exceptionally talented, but I don't believe it does now; it means being fast and accurate with easy questions
Thanks for this perspective, ColinsMum! The SAT seems like a perfectly servicable device for finding out who's got good fluency with mathematical thinking, for purposes of college admission. But for determining who's truly exceptional, not so much.
I suppose SET's reasoning is that they're looking for kids who reach this level of achievement extremely young, and are hoping that's a reasonable proxy for being able to go much much further in the ensuing years.
Bostonian, it's not a question of whether it's "easier" or "harder," as measured by the percentage of people who achieve a particular score. ColinsMum's point is about
what is being measured.
