Note: This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.
There’s something about being made by MTV that sets a movie apart. It’s
sort of like having a G rating. I lower my expectations coming into it. I
was still disappointed with this movie.
The basic premise is
that a group of six students decide to break into the headquarters of
the company that administers the SAT. (For those that don’t know, the
SAT is a test used to judge students applying to college.) Kyle and
Matty are two friends that both want a better score on the SAT. Kyle
wants to go to Cornell to study architecture, but needs at least a 1430.
Matty simply wants to get into the same school as his girlfriend. While
debating the unfairness of one test deciding their fates, they hatch a
plan to steal the answers to the SAT. (If only it were that simple.)
Along the way, they pick up four accomplices. Francesca is their first
choice. She happens to be the daughter of one of the executives, thus
giving Kyle and Matty easy access to the building. Then, there’s Anna,
who’s brought into the fold by Matty. She has a 4.0 average, but is only
second in her class. She also froze up her first time on the SAT.
Having the answers would really help. Anna brings Desmond into the
group. Desmond is a high-school basketball star who needs a 900 on the
SAT to get into the college of his choice. Roy rounds out the group.
He’s usually too stoned to go to class and has a 0.0 GPA. He finds out
about the plan when Kyle and Matty are arguing about Matty telling Anna.
Why Roy is interested in a 1600 is beyond me, but he does provide a few
laughs.
Kyle and Matty make an initial attempt, but fail when
they try to copy the test, but shred it by accident. Knowing that they
won’t get another chance like that, the team of six has to try again,
but use a style more in line with Mission Impossible. When they get in,
they realize that the answers are on a computer. Instead of being able
to simply copy a test, they have to write the answers down.
Here’s where I should stop so as not to ruin anything. You have to
figure that everything works out for the best, but there’s really no
point in revealing the end. It’s time for me to rip into the movie now.
The first major flaw that I noted was that whoever wrote this movie
never actually took the SAT. Until recently, the SAT was divided into
two parts: Math and Verbal. If you show up and manage to actually put
your correct name on the test, you’re guaranteed a 200 on each section.
The maximum you can get is 800. This means that you will get somewhere
between 400 and 1600. The score is based on standard deviation, which I
will explain shortly. What’s important now is that Desmond needs a 900
to get into Saint John’s. He can “ace” the math part of the test, as he
puts it, which I assume means that he can get an 800. The 800 that he
can get on the math section and the 200 that he’s guaranteed on the
verbal section means that he has nothing to worry about. Granted, he
probably doesn’t want to look like an idiot, but he has 100 points
leeway. He can even miss a few questions on the math and get an 800.
The next flaw is that the six students try to make it seem like a
victimless crime. Here’s where that standard deviation comes in. Each
student is given a raw score. Those that took statistics may recall the
bell curve and standard deviations. In a nutshell, if you plot the raw
scores and the number of test-takers getting each different score, you
should end up with a graph that looks like a bell. The most common score
will be the one in the center. This is the median score. According to
the theory, there should be as many students with a raw score above the
median as there are below it. The median score becomes a 500 on the SAT.
A standard deviation is determined by percentages. If I recall,
something like 65% should score within one standard deviation, 96%
within 2 and 99.7% within three. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) One
standard deviation translates to 100 on the score, so that someone that
is one standard deviation above median gets a 600. (This is why you can
miss a few questions and still get an 800. In theory, there should be
1.5% of the test takers getting more questions correct than is necessary
for an 800.) The reason that the crime isn’t victimless is that six
students getting a perfect score will affect the scores of the other
people taking the test, even if it is by ten points. Quite literally,
given a fixed number of students, there are only so many 800s to go
around on either section of the SAT.
Anyone who has taken the
SAT within the past 20 years should have caught at least one of the two
flaws I just mentioned. The next flaw has to do with GPA. Anna has a
4.0, but is second in her class, which means that there is one person
with a higher GPA. Most schools will allow for a co-valedictorian if two
students have the same GPA. Don’t tell me that it might not include
honors or Advanced Placement classes. Again, for the benefit of those
that don’t know, Advanced Placement, or AP, and honors classes allow for
a higher weighted GPA. Honors classes add 1 point to your grade if you
pass the class and AP adds 2 points, so that an A counts for 5 in an
honors class and 6 in an AP class. This is how some students wind up
with a GPA like 5.243. Why
is Anna number 2? If they were using the weighted GPA, this means that
there is only one student that made use of the extra points. (In other
words, either Anna hasn’t taken any honors or AP classes or that she
hasn’t gotten straight A’s.)
There’s only one final grievance
that I have: It was way too easy for six high-school students to pull
off. Yes, we’re dealing with six very smart students and they did have
an inside angle to work, but to think that two of them could have
infiltrated the building and be stopped by mistaking a shredder for a
photocopier is a bit ridiculous. Also, if I’m not mistaken, the SAT
actually makes use of several tests during the same testing session. I
think that there are actually four or five different tests. This is to
prevent someone from looking over and copying from a neighbor. It’s been
over a decade since I took the SAT, so I could be wrong on this.
The whole plot was contrived. I had no real empathy for any of the
students. The story, while interesting, wasn’t really enough to be
memorable. We’re talking two stars at most.
