What makes you retake it after getting 32 and 34? A desire to be the subject of a Yahoo story?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060818/ap_on_re_us/pair_of_aces


Kansas teen perfect on SAT, ACT

WICHITA, Kan. - A teenager has achieved a rare feat: perfect scores on both the American College Testing exam and the SAT.

Jakub Voboril, 17, a senior at Bishop Carroll High School, learned last month that he had scored a 36 on his ACT, which he took in June. His perfect score, one of only two in Kansas on the June test, came after he scored 32 and 34 on his first two tries.

"Part of me said, 'That's good enough. You can stop there,'" he said. "But I decided to take it one more time to see what happened."

He took the SAT the same week. Those results — a perfect 2400 — came in shortly after he got his ACT scores.

Voboril comes from good genes: his two older sisters were high school valedictorians. He hasn't settled on a college or major, but has considered math, philosophy and law, possibly at the University of Notre Dame or Princeton.

He said he didn't have an answer for how he scored so well.

"It's weird, because before I took it, I checked out a couple books from the library. I expected there to be this big secret that all the smart people had that I just had to read.

"But I found out there's not a secret formula. Obviously, you have to pay attention in classes, take classes that are going to teach you what you need to know — that sort of thing."

No statistics are available on how many students have aced both tests, but it's a safe bet Voboril doesn't have a lot of company.

"Suffice it to say, it's a very, very small number," said Brian O'Reilly, a spokesman for the College Board, which administers the SAT.

Voboril comes from good genes: his two older sisters were high school valedictorians. He hasn't settled on a college or major, but has considered math, philosophy and law, possibly at the University of Notre Dame or Princeton.

Are they trying to imply that he was birthed from his two older sisters? I didn't think Kansas had that kind of reputation.

How wild would it be if this kid joins here and starts posting?


EDIT: Maybe he could come up with some good Sheed trades.

If I've just cracked the code that he's imbred I don't think he'll show up.

There's a joke there but I'll let it go to someone else, as it would be in poor taste.

since when does the sat go up to 2400? i never took it, but i thought the max was 1600.

i smell a rat. kansas must be pretty desperate to shed the label of 'the inbred state' to add 800 points onto a sat score.

The SAT going up to 2400 is a recent change -- a writing section was added.

For that matter, the ACT didn't always go to 36. The 4 tests used to have slightly different weights (33, 34, 35, 36), with the highest score you could get being a 35 (rounded up from 34.5).

its not impossible, tough yes, impossible no. i aced two sections of the ACT, english and math. the english part was pathetically easy... pick the shortest sensible answer. if its correct and not wordy, its what they are looking for. for the record, 34 overall... and it was after i dropped out of highschool and before i got my diploma. i was only 16 yrs old when i took the test, and at the time only had a freshman education. i never took the SAT, didnt believe in it then and dont believe in it now. its culturally biased and not a true measure of intelligence. kudos to the kid though, must have been studying his ass off.

Yeah, those red state cats sure are idiots.

Yeah, those red state cats sure are idiots.
Isn't that why so many of those "top colleges" are in blue states? I agree that the red states are smarter inasmuch as they've managed to get the blue states tax dollars to flow their way -- obviously lower test scores mean folks who feel they need more entitlement. <laughs> But why politicize this? Sheesh...

As a standardized test jock and hypercompetitive bastard in my youth (some perfect scores on SAT/ACT tests, #1 in class, National Merit, yadda yadda yadda), I've long been amused at just how bad the correlation between the SATs and other performance metrics (college GPA, salary and management stats, etc.) is. The K-12 academic standardized tests mostly how well one takes standardized tests and how much money one's parents have. For most "brightest and best" definitions, the folks that claim to want such people would have better luck picking names out of a hat of self-selected good students.

College GPA, salary, and management stats are HORRIBLE indicators of intelligence.

College GPA??? Come on, the same cats who don't try in high school or give a shit could do the same thing in college, ANY GPA has no merit on actual intelligence. A smart guy could fuck around, a dumb guy could study his ass off and they still both make a 3.2, who's smarter?

Salary??? There are very smart people working jobs everywhere who don't make shit. What about doctors in Cambodia, doing 'feel good' medicine or something like that?

Management positions? Right, because promotions are ENTIRELY merit based on not based on ass kissing or more prominately race/sex issues.

I think standardized testing is the only real indicator of actual intelligence, outside of actually talking with someone to gage their brain power, everything else is skewed by effort, race, sex, desires, etc.

Yeah, standardized tests aren't effected by "effort" nor "desires", nor are they ethnically, socially, and economically biased. Not to mention the effect that things like poor pressure management, knowing proper test taking strategy, or having a "learning disability" like dislexia has on a timed test.

I think standardized testing is the only real indicator of actual intelligence, outside of actually talking with someone to gage their brain power, everything else is skewed by effort, race, sex, desires, etc.

Fuck that shit.

I score extremely poorly on standardized tests but I was a high school valedictorian myself. I took the new SAT twice and my math score went DOWN. That's not supposed to happen.

Standardized tests are a fucking joke and are no measure of true intelligence.

College GPA, salary, and management stats are HORRIBLE indicators of intelligence.
Right, but the standarized college admissions tests aren't IQ tests. They'd probably look more like the ASVAB if they were. Of course, since colleges aren't really looking just for "intelligence", it doesn't matter. They're mostly looking for "the brightest and best", where brilliance is as much about being "shiny" as anything. They want a student body with some pretty specific characteristics to establish themselves as successful institutions. Some of those characteristics are about balance, diversity, etc., but most of it boils down to money.


College GPA??? Come on, the same cats who don't try in high school or give a shit could do the same thing in college, ANY GPA has no merit on actual intelligence. A smart guy could fuck around, a dumb guy could study his ass off and they still both make a 3.2, who's smarter?
Try looking exclusive so you can charge more money if your GPAs aren't high.


Salary??? There are very smart people working jobs everywhere who don't make shit. What about doctors in Cambodia, doing 'feel good' medicine or something like that?

Management positions? Right, because promotions are ENTIRELY merit based on not based on ass kissing or more prominately race/sex issues.
Try getting endowments and $ if your graduates are poorly positioned within industry. You did know that a good way to be well-positioned involved having parents with money, right?


I think standardized testing is the only real indicator of actual intelligence, outside of actually talking with someone to gage their brain power, everything else is skewed by effort, race, sex, desires, etc.
Hell, just defining "actual intelligence" is hard enough, let alone trying to define an indicator for it. There's seriously smart people whose intelligence isn't bounded or well-expressed by Scantron bubbles and multiple-choice timed tests.

Speaking of the ASVAB and IQ tests...

I took the ASVAB in high school on an hour's notice to avoid doing a dumb presentation I wasn't ready for due to procrastination and lack of sleep. (I hate public speaking on stuff that I don't have a passion for.) I scored 99th percentile in everything but the automotive part, and had military recruiters pestering the shit out of me for the next 5 years. I had postal mail every day for a year (the first day fotally filled the mailbox -- my parents were freaked), phone calls, requests to visit me at my school, etc. There seemed to be no "do not call" list they all used, and it must've cost our guv'mint hundreds of $ trying to recruit me after I'd already said "go away" to every branch.

As for IQ tests, long ago, I was desperate for work and found what I thought was a great gig (though in hindsight it was an Office Space). As part of their interviews, they required a 30-question "logic" test, which I thought was cool. Between that and some awesome interviews, I felt great about my prospects. They were hot to hire, and I was surprised when I never heard back. I called them and was astonished to hear I wouldn't get the job because my perfect test score "indicated to HR" that I'd be bored and want to leave in 6 months!

ASVAB was really easy, I ABACADBA'd the last two sections and still scored in the 90th percentile, lucky for them, they didn't have to recruit me, I went to take it after I figured I'd be joining anyway. Unlucky for me, my high ASVAB score steered me out of the Air Force, because they don't take stupid people in the Air Force, so, someone with a high score doesn't impress them nearly as much and they offer no 'special' programs, and into the Navy.

I remember talking with the recruiter before I joined and he asked, "What do you like do?" I said write, and he told me about the JO rate, since changed to MC, which was journalism. What I didn't know is how great their advancement numbers are and how short on JO's/MC's are, but I took the ASVAB and the guy said "I HAD to be a nuke." Needless to say, that job sucked, the only saving grace was a year and a half of school, so no going to a ship right away, but I hated that job so bad I told the doctors I was depressed to get out of that field. Now, I'm going to be banking on that schooling and the security clearance to get a job in six months. Never bite the hand that feeds ya.

A DoD TS+ or DoE clearance and being trainable is enough to get you a great deal in many U.S. geographies (though not metro Detroit, unfortunately). It's sadly amusing how the guv'mint hasn't figured out supply and demand. Spend a little less on processing the security clearances, then spend a ton more out of the back-end in delays and inflated pay for scarce resources. There's also an uprise in "bogus" security credentials (the one I've seen most is "must be a U.S. citizen with passport") where the goal seems to have less to do with real security than politicizing against offshore employees. Joy.

If I were 18 years old today, I'd rather have a TS clearance than test scores.

That's what I'm hoping for, although, I'm still nervous about it.