Test scores are only one component. They also assess your character and your ability to handle different situations. As for getting into Ivy League or Oxbridge, test scores only get you into the first step of consideration, they also look at your non-school activities and again, your personality. Those elite institutions have turned away numerous perfect score applicants because they lack life experiences.
I never said it was not an important component. But my point is that those pure study machines that don't know anything else beyond the score on their exam cannot get into the best colleges.
As for job applications, it depends on the field, but in my experience test scores don't really matter as much. They are more interested in the college you went to than a specific score.
Anyone in this thread go through the IB program? I did, but not in HK. Congratulations to those kids, they earned it. IB exams are very different from SAT or even AP exams. The individuals in my graduating classes that were socially awkward and spent all day studying turned into fine human beings, despite their perfect scores (as is the sentiment in this thread).
True. Not looking for an argument.
Just wondering, there are many successful people who never did particularly well in school yet succeded in life. They have ample talent and ability which aren't reflected in their (lack of) academic aptitude.
But in HK, the accepted road to success is too rigid. If there were somehow more opportunity for those less academically gifted, then society as a whole would benefit from maximizing their hidden talents.
Last edited by Cho-man; 08-07-2015 at 11:10 AM.