It is very difficult for admission officers to evaluate the relative value of grades from different students. After all, not all teachers in the country are equally harsh or lenient in assigning grades. For some, an A is given to only the top two or so students, and even a B takes a good bit of work to attain. For others, almost half the class may receive A’s or A-’s. Indeed, entire schools may be, on the whole, more grade inflated than others. This is also the case for recommendation letters. For example, some teachers may give incredible recommendations to mediocre students based upon personal relationships.

SAT II’s are a method of creating uniformity across all applicants. If a chemistry teacher gives a student an A, yet the same student scores a 530 on the SAT II Chemistry exam, the admission officer is likely to question the teacher’s evaluation. On the other hand, if a language teacher writes that a particular student is a virtuoso of Latin, and the same student scores a 780 on the SAT II Latin exam, the admission officer is likely to give more weight to the teacher’s comments. Thus, one use of the SAT II is to verify other parts of the student’s application.