I'll use my area for an example. I live in western Illinois where the highest GPA you can get is about 4.333 if you take all the AP/honors classes. Recently I was at the state science fair and got to talking with some kids from Chicagoland. Up there apearently you can get a 5.5 GPA because of A+s which somehow are higher than As and they have an honors class for every subject, not just english like we do here. Now the smartest kids from my school have a 4.333 while the smartest kids from the suburbs will have a 5.5. You just can't compare them.
As for an alternate to the ACT/SAT? I honestly don't know. But the SAT dosn't test much of anything but how well you can guess what words mean and how well you do math. Some kids aren't good at math. Should they not get into college because of it? If your applying to a liberal arts school, they still look at you SAT scores even if they know that you will probably not take another math class the rest of your life. The tests should at least cover the subjects that the students are going into.
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