HS grades are a joke. All it takes is an unforeseen medical emergency or a teacher who hates you to tank your future. Thank god for standardized tests, otherwise I’d be living a very different life.

On the other hand, I didn’t even graduate high school yet have led a very successful life.

These days, people game them by claiming a disability so they get extra time.

I doubt the typical students scoring 1540+ have time pressure on the SAT. Sure extra time might help someone get from 1400 to 1440, but it’s not going to get you 1400 to 1600.

40 points is 40 points.

Other countries probably have a more centralized, standardized schooling system. In the USA schooling is at the local and state level.

> Other countries probably have a more centralized, standardized schooling system.

Which is basically what the SATs are:

* https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT

This is what Baccalaureates, Abitur, Gaokao, etc. are: much more standardized high-school final exams, used as a metric for university admissions.