13 year old Michigan boy earns a perfect ACT score.

There are no statistics on the matter, but one official suggests the odds of an eighth grader earning a perfect ACT score would be one-millionth of one percent.

Yeah, it's impressive--but can he fly?

Don't answer that.

The 610 smartest colleges and universities in America, according to Business Insider

Only 610?

Well, that narrows it down.

Bard College president: SAT is part hoax, part fraud.

No need for a detailed set-up.

So says Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, in an essay to Time Magazine:

"The SAT will continue in its revised form to face challenges. It is part hoax and part fraud, albeit a profitable one. The College Board, however, is not entirely to blame. David Coleman is to be admired for trying to rescue an outdated, sinking ship. The real responsibility for our sorry state of affairs regarding college entrance examinations rests with our colleges and universities themselves. The elite institutions have willingly supported an alliance with the College Board to make their own lives easier, and we Americans seem to have accepted this owing to our misplaced love affair with standardized testing and rankings as the proper means to ensure educational excellence."

And...

"The commonsensical truth is that the only legitimate test is one where a question is put forward and an answer required with no options or hints. The one major reform in the new SAT seems to be the dropping of a required essay. This is ironic because the one thing colleges need to know in their admissions process is how well a student can think, construct an argument, and persuade. Asking a student to sit down and write essays in an examination setting might be an excellent way to discover an applicant’s command of language and thought. This one potentially useful piece of evidence has been made optional."

Everything Botstein says works except praising the College Board's David Coleman. Saying Coleman deserves admiration for preserving what is described as a "hoax" and a "fraud" is like saying you appreciate an artist selling fake Picasso's.

Sure, it looks good in theory, but it isn't real, is it?

Charles Wolock: the world's smartest person (with a #2 pencil).

Standardized tests are amazing things that tell a lot about a person. Specifically, they tell a lot about how well someone takes standardized tests.

This means we can tell a lot about Charles Wolock. Charles is a senior in high school outside Kansas City, MO. And according to the Kansas City Star, he had perfect scores on both the SAT and the ACT.

This means a variety of things for Charles:

1.) He's really good at standardized tests.
2.) Colleges and universities that blindly accept students based on standardized test scores just saved themselves five minutes and mailed out an acceptance letter to Charles without his even having to apply and waste a stamp.
3.) He probably has a really good supply of #2 pencils.
4.) People probably high-fived him a lot after he got his grades back.

I never took the SATs myself. (Long, sleep-inducing story that you needn't know.) And the only ACT I know of is the name of a low-brow mouthwash and an even lower-brow brand of microwave popcorn

But, hey, more power to Charles. Hopefully he gets a scholarship out of it. Or at least a gift card to Panera. Denny's, even. Something, you know?