> College entrance exams do not test for intelligence or academic competence. They test for ability to do well on the exam, which is governed primarily by a student's socioeconomic status.

What is the signal Harvard uses to test for intelligence or academic competence? So far I only have learned that SAT and ACT are not it. Whaat is?

I wrote a bit more in [0], but in short my point is that they don't "test for intelligence or academic competence". The idea that standardized college entrance exams like the ACT and SAT are useful predictors of these things is a lie sold to you by their manufacturers, made believable only because they obfuscate the truth: that these tests are predominantly indicators of economic means and stability.

There does not exist a meaningful test of general intelligence that outputs a number that is equally meaningful to people from all socioeconomic (or even cultural) backgrounds. Similarly, there does not exist a meaningful test of academic potential (aside from a student's existing academic record).

College entrance exams are a scam meant to make money for the people who manufacture them. I say this as someone who did pretty well on every standardized exam I took, and felt guilty because I knew students who performed worse and had fewer college prospects than I did because of it, even though I knew they were better students who would easily out-perform me at the more prestigious institutions to which I was admitted in most meaningful metrics.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29601780