College admission tests are designed to test and predict academic success. But could the outcome of these tests also speak for your intelligence? The SAT has been shown to correlate highly with standard measure of intelligence, specifically the Raven's Progressive Matrices, which are "non-verbal multiple choice measures of the reasoning component of g, or general intelligence". This term "general intelligence", however, is hard to fully understand.
Chris Langan, an ex-bar bouncer, has one of the highest IQs in the United States. He scored perfectly on his SAT, but he had trouble in college and easily offended his professors. Although he has a very high general intelligence, he lacks interpersonal skill that some believe to be part of a person's intelligence as well. The idea of multiple intelligences would explain why Chris Langan is extremely smart yet dropped out of college multiple times and never earned a degree. Although one might take an IQ test and score relatively low, they may have musical, spatial, linguistic, or naturalistic intelligence which might not be measured by reasoning alone.
General intelligence is only one type of intelligence that individuals may possess. It is not always a key to success, as in Chris Langan's case. The many other types of intelligence that people have are not tested by the Raven's Progressive Matrices, and therefore the SAT, while it may be a way to measure g, cannot predict overall intelligence and only shows one piece of a much larger puzzle.
(From Chapter 9: Intelligence and IQ Testing)
Does High SAT = High Intelligence?
Good title and very good writing! It is difficult to define intelligence; the construct is not easily to operationalize. There is debate about how well the SAT and ACT (and other high-stakes admissions test) predict academic success. Are these test measuring IQ or something more specific (e.g., test-taking ability, skills needed for academic success)?
It's a good blog. I like your example with Chris Langan. It definitely points that high grade in SAT does not equal to high intelligence. Actually, I think high grade can only prove that a person has a high IQ, but does not related EQ.
Excellent blog topic, and I completely agree with you. The type of intelligence measured by the SAT is not indicative of other types of intelligence at all. It's very narrow in that way and besides, academic success might not be able to be measured by one test.
I think this is a really great topic to bring up. I have a number of friends who have gotten really high scores and really low scores on standardized tests. I don't think that it is as big of a determinant as some schools make it seem. Just because someone may not be as intelligent as someone else doesn't mean that they aren't willing to put in the work to get to another level. Well done!
This is a really interesting topic because I think we all know people who have a variety of intelligences. Whether someone seems to be "book smart" or "street smart" there are advantages to both, and I don't think intelligence tests necessarily measure all types. Great post!
The example of Chris Langan in there blog is good. I definitely agree that high SAT score maybe not only SAT do not equal to high intelligent. We cannot score one's talent though these simple quiz questions. If we do so, some genius must be missed!
Nice work!! I always thought that there are different types of intelligence, which would explain why people have different talents. Also, was the answer 5?