I've only gone to school in Europe (Norway, specifically) - so I'm not sure how one can game their GPA. I'd say that a solid 80% of my degree was graded/scored on written or oral exam. Rest were home exams, or a mix of both - with 10% being the Masters thesis alone.

But then again, we don't have any standardized tests here. Not for college admission, or afterwards. The grades you get, are what you have - and everything is judged by those grades.