> A student can literally have a perfect GPA in the best courses offered by their school and be considered a very poor applicant academically.

Do you have a source for this?

It’s literally two straightforward google searches. Search “university entrance GPA admissions USA” has a top result that shows that Ivy League admissions have weighted GPAs above 4.0. Searching “course offerings poor us high schools” shows some high schools only offer courses where 4.0 is the top GPA.

Not OP but I am an abnormally good "tester." It was always easy for me to see what the questions were asking for and could make a go of anything multiple choice. I'm also good at writing essays. It does not make me smart, it makes my abilities especially suited to standardized tests.

Being able to infer information fast, being able to write essays well, etc, are signs of good intelligence and high cognitive capability.

There's no abnormality here i can see. Your score reflects your real ability.

If you cannot solve the same problems given an open ended question, is it real ability? There is definitely something there, but I’m not sure I could be proud of it.