Don't let yourself fooled by stories about miracles.
Universities tend to care too much for things that are measurable, like marks and test scores.
We know, from various sources. This has become a industry in China, because of economic problems leading to emigration desires. Also reports of mass-faking scores are alarming. Filtering is often set based on GRE scores, maybe just because other means are simply impossible to implement. This is why perfect, bright students land in medium universities and those who prepare just to take tests land in good ones, although they might be medium individuals.