I wonder if John Fosher and Luke Wood are the same person.

I adamantly believe that the SAT is an outlier. I has to take it at 7am on a Saturday at a school that wasn't mine, that I had never been to in my life. Having taken the SAT as well as the PSAT, I think high school courses tell a better story than one test day. Some people don't do random tests well. I could not pass the UWP exam both times but the course itself I learned a lot and I think I got an A or B.

I transferred to Davis and I personally think lower division college courses, even at a CCC, are a much better indicator of success.

The time and environment of these sit down tests are often overlooked but can be very important. I was given the army OCS qualification test at the oakland army depot at 5 am in the morning before breakfast. Took the SAT after a 4 hour drive from my home to UC during an all day rain storm. I took the LSAT at 6pm on a Friday night after work all day at a service station in Chico. Barely made the mark on any one of the tests. I vote on the side of HS grades over the SAT

Sure lower division college courses may be a good predictor of college performance with courses that are taught at the pace and material of the courses at UC.
High school courses are taught at about half speed, and are not graded uniformly, so are not a good predictor, of whether someone can keep up.In addition because everyone applying has high grades, the admissions office is picking between students with a 3.8 and a 4.4. That difference doesn’t mean ine knows more than the other. The subjective nature of admissions lead to admission on non academic factors. I saw an interview with a well spoken Asian kid with a 4.3 GPA and 1500 plus SAT, who was turned down at Davis, UCSD, Berkeley UCLA and others.