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While I understand the issues around the DMZ theory, there has to be some significance to Hal telling the deans, "Call it something I ate," followed by the childhood mold-eating story (whether you interpret that as an actual component of his problem, or a foreshadowing of future DMZ use).
Also, we know that Hal entered a hospital emergency room roughly one year prior for similar psychiatric reasons, which points to some sort of concrete event that caused same. That seems to shed doubt on the gradual psychological breakdown theory, absent some specific trigger; digging up Himself's head has been cited as such by some folks, but that apparently happened after Hal and Gately somehow hooked up in the hospital (with or without Joelle's help). There's also the theory that Hal watched the Entertainment, but there again are timing issues with that (i.e., if he and Gately are still looking for the master cartridge post-hospitilization), and Hal's particular condition bears little resemblance to the known effects of the film (though it would be delicious irony that the very thing his father created to draw Hal out instead forced him back inside himself, perhaps permanently).
There are, of course, also timeline issues with the DMZ theory, vis a vis the fact it probably would have to have been ingested prior to Hal's discussion with Stice (will be paying real close attention to the sequence of events once I reach that section in my re-read). But there are compelling clues as well, not only the spoiler cited above by "storm" (hmmm, spoiler-alerts in a forum where spoilers are fair game - is that sort of like an endnote?) but also Hal's DMZ dream about being unable to communicate. And DMZ is certainly touted as the hallucinogenic to end all hallucinogenics, sort of the drug equivalent of the ultimate Entertainment (and DMZ is nicknamed after the film's star - proceed into "metempsychosis" analyses at your own risk).
As for the initial post here about timing and the SATs, there's no specific reference in the text to SAT, just standardized tests in general, and the SAT is given several times a year, into the spring. It seems like a bit of a stretch to think Hal would have been in a position to take any such test in December YDAU, given all the heavy shit going down in late November; on the other hand, we know that things were back to "normal" for him, at least tennis-wise, by February of GLAD, which is when UA starts recruiting him.
Another loose thread is the contradiction between Hal's continued tennis motor skills, and his inability to make even simple gestures in the interview with the deans. My initial thought was that he was only losing control in the interview because of the stress of the situation, while he's comfortable on the court. But then there's that reference to his typing resembling an "infant's random stabs at the keyboard" - ??.
Finally, a (possibly?) unrelated nugget to chew on: I didn't pick up on this until my most recent umpteenth rereading of the opening chapter, but what about Hal's statement in that amazing laundry list of observations/recollections beginning on page 16 where he declares, "I have become an infantophile" - what are we to make of that, particularly given what we know about the Entertainment's subject matter/effect on viewers?
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