The Relationships among the SAT, Intelligence and Achievement

You are correct, IQ is just one factor for success. Energy, willingness to take risks, good character — all that counts heavily too.

Not to mention the square pegs, round holes issue. High intelligence is generally useful, but it can be a double edged sword. Bright people will learn complicated things much faster, and they can operate past the point at which other people "hit the wall." BUT: high intelligence can be socially isolating. It can complicate the team player dynamic. It is often associated with Rapid Onset Boredom (my ad hoc term), which is a problem in the working world because a lot of jobs involve a lot of routine. If the bright creative guy can find a niche that gives him room to do his thing, he can be invaluable. But stick him in a niche where he suffocates in routine and has difficulty functioning as a team player because he's generally a couple of steps ahead of everyone else, his intelligence can be a trial.

This is not just casual meandering. I've long been interested in the hostility of so many in our intellectual classes to free market capitalism. One of the reasons, I believe, is that bright and creative people often despise the drudgery that goes along with many jobs in the business world, even in the executive suite. Business rewards people for many traits beyond sheer intellectual competence. In particular, it rewards those who have the self-discipline to suck it up and do a good job at boring but important and complicated tasks (including much of legal practice, accounting, financial analysis, and managerial tasks). Creatives often fall prey to the error of resenting the success of people they see as intellectual inferiors who are rewarded for being very good at these kinds of jobs. The high IQ creative wants room to play (intellectually speaking). Serving the mundane demands of customers, clients and bosses can be hard on them.

These test scores are only a snapshot of what one knows at that period of time. It should not be a mitigating factor of what one has the capacity to do in the future.

Well said.

Many students who don't do well on the SAT still do well in college. The test lasts only a few hours, but so much is riding on that score. The pressure can be too much for some students.

For example, in the SAT math section, the math problems are made to look and sound difficult. A student in a state of panic might not do very well.

Another thing is that most students have been trained to "do math" to solve a problem. The SAT is all about speed and test strategy; any student writing out the math problems will run out of time.

Most people don’t believe it but multiple choice and true false are the most reliable means of testing. Essay are the worst. No wonder they now add essays to some of the newer tests.

I don’t quite believe that. I’ve read many essays and you can tell who knows what they are talking about and who does not. In some cases, people can’t even write a coherent essay. Or even a coherent sentence. Game over.

That being said, the bias of the person reading the essay may also come into play. Especially if they are a Lib who know the ethnicity of the student.

My personal preference is open ended questions where you have to show your thought process. In STEM subjects, this easily separates the wheat from the chaff.

One more thing: In 1986, I attended a testing seminar. They had a speaker there who demonstrated that you could score 80% on any multiple choice test by seeing patterns in the answers. Basically they usually came down to two answers to choose from, with one being a more obvious right answer. He demonstrated this by take a M/C test he had never seen before (in real time and explaining his reasoning) doing just what he said.

I’m not that smart, but I test well, and my verbal scores were astronomical. I scored a 94 on the ASVAB; however, a minor-in-possession of alcohol citation still disqualified me from most positions. After leaving active duty, my ACT scores got me a full scholarship.

That said, I was, and remain, a terrible student. I do well in subjects that hold my interest, but cannot stand compulsory “requirements” that lack any merit. Valid tests may measure intelligence or aptitude, but the only real measure of success is success, and that only comes with discipline and hard work. The days when a degree was proof of either are long past.

Well, there is a reason the report said that SAT combined with High School GPA is a key indicator for college success. GPA measures intelligence. High School GPA measure intelligence but also work ethic, perseverance, attention span, patience, compatibility alertness. A whole host of things.

The report is not defending the SAT as a sole indicator of college success. The report is defending the SAT as being a key indicator of college success along with GPA, and debunking the fallacy that black people have lower SATs because they lack white privilege.

I took the GRE four years after I took the SAT. On the math part the scores were practically the same (3 points difference). On the verbal part my GRE score was 40 points higher.

I took the minimum of college math (one course) and the instructor decided to teach logic instead of math which was fine with me. That my GRE math score was virtually the same as my SAT math score indicated that the GRE was testing high school level math.

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