For example, I got 800 on the critical reading and 780 on the writing (not quite perfect) because I’ve been reading avidly since 5th grade and took 4 years of Latin in high school (Latin does wonders for your grammar and vocabulary both)– doesn’t mean I’m a “genius” when it comes to English, just that I know a LOT about English and grammar. I clearly don’t know as much about math, though, since I only got a 690 on it– but, oh, if I had studied more!

Well, and studying does help! I’m convinced that I could have gotten a much higher math score if I’d actually taken the time to study for it! But I imagine that studying can only make a “so-so” score into a “good” score (though it might make a “great” score into a perfect score)… a lot of it is about just being naturally good at tests.

But “genius” isn’t a requirement. You just have to be really good at what the SAT is about.

Realize however that educational advantages plays a big part in SAT scores, and that the scores are correlated with family income and wealth as well as they are with grades (which in many ways also reflect wealth and income). So do richer people get higher IQ scores than poorer people . . . well, sort of because of the nature of the questions. Wealth brings experience (usually) and experience brings learning, and learning helps on IQ scores.

i know people who got 2400 and they were not geniuses at all

all you need is to study a lot and not be stupid