Some two million students take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) each year, hoping for a perfect score of 1,600. So much emphasis is placed on the SAT that a prosperous tutoring industry has arisen to prepare students to improve their SAT scores. In The Perfect Score, directed by Brian Robbins, several students aiming for a score high enough to get into their preferred schools are involved in a heist to get the questions or answers from the main office of the Princeton Testing Center (though the filming is mostly in Los Angeles and Vancouver). As in the noir film Better Luck Tomorrow (2003), some have cheated in high school exams before, but the school administration has scolded rather than disciplined them for their infractions. Much of the film is devoted to identifying each student's aspirations. For example, Kyle (played by Chris Evans) got a 1020 on his first try, but he needs 1430 to fulfill his dream of majoring in architecture at Cornell. Basketball star Desmond (played by Darius Miles), the token Black, seeks a 900 to get into St. John's to please his mother, who fears that he will not succeed in life if he merely joins the NBA after graduation from high school. Anna (played by Erika Christiansen) ranks second in her graduating class but freezes up on tests. Ray (played by Leonard Nam), the token Asian, is more interested in a joint than in college; he is cast in the film presumably to dispel the "Model Minority" myth. Although there is some dialog about the unfairness of the SAT for minorities, the Anglo students claim that the SAT upsets their plans for college as well. They call the SAT the "Suck Ass Test" or the "Sick And Twisted" test. Rather than organizing a large-scale student protest of the use of the SAT, however, the students simply try to beat the test. Since the father of another student, Francesca (played by Scarlett Johansson), owns the building where testing center is housed, she can gain access for those who want to purloin the test. However, after developing a crib sheet for the test, will any of them take the test without cheating? The Perfect Score ends up preaching to students, negating the premise of the film, and we learn what happens to them afterward, as the filmmakers assume that we are still present in the cinema and care about such mixed-up juveniles. In contrast, the Frontline documentary The Big Test (1999) is a far superior treatment of the notorious SAT, wherein we develop affection for those who take the controversial test and have to cope with the results. MH
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