Yes, IQ Really Matters

Slate ^ | 4/16/14 | David Z. Hambrick and Christopher Chabris

[Altura Ct.]

Critics of the SAT and other standardized testing are disregarding the data.

The College Board—the standardized testing behemoth that develops and administers the SAT and other tests—has redesigned its flagship product again. Beginning in spring 2016, the writing section will be optional, the reading section will no longer test “obscure” vocabulary words, and the math section will put more emphasis on solving problems with real-world relevance. Overall, as the College Board explains on its website, “The redesigned SAT will more closely reflect the real work of college and career, where a flexible command of evidence—whether found in text or graphic [sic]—is more important than ever.”

A number of pressures may be behind this redesign. Perhaps it’s competition from the ACT, or fear that unless the SAT is made to seem more relevant, more colleges will go the way of Wake Forest, Brandeis, and Sarah Lawrence and join the “test optional admissions movement,” which already boasts several hundred members. Or maybe it’s the wave of bad press that standardized testing, in general, has received over the past few years.

Critics of standardized testing are grabbing this opportunity to take their best shot at the SAT. They make two main arguments. The first is simply that a person’s SAT score is essentially meaningless—that it says nothing about whether that person will go on to succeed in college. Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and longtime standardized testing critic, wrote in Time that the SAT “needs to be abandoned and replaced,” and added:

[grania]

The SAT and the ACT are essentially worthless

The old SAT testied analytic ability combined with comprehension of ones core knowledge. A good prepper could predict within 40 points either way how a student would do on each section at least 90% of the time. And it did tie in with college success in programs that dealt with those analytic skills. What's become less relevant is needing to have analytic skills to survive college in some areas of endeavor.

Students are given standardized testing so much now, starting in preschool, that these tests seem less relevant. The students fate has been pretty much determined by grade 6 or so. JMHO

[sipow]

Maybe they would even learn that it wasn’t the civil war being fought in 1776.

[irish guard]

I'll buy some of your argument, but I've known the 800 types and they were terrible students. I've known 34 ACT takers and while they weren't great students they got 3.0+GPAs and are doing well in the real world.

You're all missing the point. With grade inflation in high school, when all the little Johnnys get. 3.9-4.0, the only way for a college admissions team to differentiate students is to look at these standardized tests.

To suggest the tests are worthless is a bit of hyperbole.

[I want the USA back]

All this so that they don’t have to admit that most of the obama voters are stupid!

[RegulatorCountry]

It was if you were British. We were “Rebels” to them.

[JayGalt]

My first post was not a reply to the original poster but to those who just dismissed the predictive value of the SAT based on anecdotal evidence and didn’t read the article. Sorry about any confusing and thanks for posting the article.

[Prolixus]

“The tests are subjective and only measure how well prospective college and grad students can take subjective tests. “

What objective criteria can schools use to screen applicants?

[Senator_Blutarski]

The SAT and ACT are essentially worthless.

Early in my adult life I was a college admissions counselor. ACT and SAT scores were the single best predictor of college success, particularly in academic areas like mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. Students with good board scores who showed evidence of having decent study skills were very likely to succeed in college.

For other areas like communications, sociology, anthropology, black studies and elementary education the board scores were less important. For those areas evidence of good study skills were the best predictor of success.

There were always exceptions, but students with lousy board scores and poor study habits had a low chance of success. (I have avoided the less polite ways of saying that.)

[Alberta's Child]

I agree with you, Jay. It's actually a very good article, and reinforces the point that tests like the SAT and ACT aren't perfect indicators of success, but do a pretty good job of measuring aptitude for higher education.

[HiTech RedNeck]

4. Review the entire Civil War from 1776 onto the end of the war.

Huh, I never knew the Civil War began that early.

[WinMod70]

4. Review the entire Civil War from 1776 onto the end of the war.
Huh, I never knew the Civil War began that early.

Ah, a denier! (s)

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’m not up on the latest conspiracy. Forgive me.

[WinMod70]

Regardless of test scores, if you have the ability to come up with the scratch some school somewhere will gladly take it.

[9YearLurker]

That’s ridiculous. If you worked in finance, high tech, the sciences, or some other field where IQ really matters—which I’m guessing you don’t—you’d well know the correlation between such scores and intelligence.

Doesn’t mean people can’t and don’t do very well in life with more limited intelligence. In some ways, at some levels, limited intelligence can make life easier.

But it’s silly to claim there’s not a correlation between intelligence and these tests, and that for a number of situations high intelligence really matters.

[central_va]

pepsionice prolly thinks it was the Japs that bombed Pearl Harbor...

[ozdragon]

While reading 100 great works of literature is great advice I used a simpler method with my children. (2 girls, now in their early 30’s and both successful)
While they were in elementary and high school:
1) My wife and I both read to them as did their baby sitter
2) Encouraged them to read the works of Shakespeare
3) Regularly took them to museums here in NY and around the country when we travelled (They actually developed a love of museums)
4) Worked with them to do 5 extra math problems every school evening so that they would develop real skills in mathematics
None of these took money but did require my wife and me to be active parents

[HiTech RedNeck]

The North rose against the South in 1776. Yeah.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Even understanding the Cliffs Notes version of most of these would be an improvement over knowing nothing.

[central_va]

 

Estimate your IQ, using your SAT scoreStraight talk on it.

 For all SAT conversions, the chart below seems to work better than any other method. Two well known data points fit it - for George W. Bush and Al Gore (their details below the chart).

SAT I V+M	IQ 15 SD	IQ 16 SD	%ile		SAT I V+M	IQ 15 SD	IQ 16 SD	%ile
1600	152.18	155.65	99.975		1010	109.46	110.09	73.587
1590	151.45	154.88	99.970		1000	108.74	109.32	71.985
1580	150.73	154.11	99.964		990	108.01	108.55	70.338
1570	150.00	153.34	99.957		980	107.29	107.77	68.647
1560	149.28	152.57	99.949		970	106.56	107.00	66.916
1550	148.56	151.79	99.940		960	105.84	106.23	65.149
1540	147.83	151.02	99.929		950	105.12	105.46	63.347
1530	147.11	150.25	99.916		940	104.39	104.68	61.516
1520	146.38	149.48	99.901		930	103.67	103.91	59.659
1510	145.66	148.70	99.883		920	102.94	103.14	57.780
1500	144.94	147.93	99.863		910	102.22	102.37	55.883
1490	144.21	147.16	99.840		900	101.50	101.60	53.972
1480	143.49	146.39	99.813		890	100.77	100.82	52.052
1470	142.76	145.61	99.782		880	100.05	100.05	50.128
1460	142.04	144.84	99.747		870	99.32	99.28	48.203
1450	141.32	144.07	99.706		860	98.60	98.51	46.282
1440	140.59	143.30	99.660		850	97.88	97.73	44.370
1430	139.87	142.53	99.607		840	97.15	96.96	42.471
1420	139.14	141.75	99.547		830	96.43	96.19	40.589
1410	138.42	140.98	99.479		820	95.70	95.42	38.729
1400	137.70	140.21	99.402		810	94.98	94.65	36.894
1390	136.97	139.44	99.315		800	94.26	93.87	35.088
1380	136.25	138.66	99.217		790	93.53	93.10	33.316
1370	135.52	137.89	99.106		780	92.81	92.33	31.580
1360	134.80	137.12	98.983		770	92.08	91.56	29.884
1350	134.08	136.35	98.845		760	91.36	90.78	28.231
1340	133.35	135.58	98.691		750	90.64	90.01	26.623
1330	132.63	134.80	98.519		740	89.91	89.24	25.062
1320	131.90	134.03	98.329		730	89.19	88.47	23.552
1310	131.18	133.26	98.118		720	88.46	87.69	22.093
1300	130.46	132.49	97.884		710	87.74	86.92	20.687
1290	129.73	131.71	97.627		700	87.02	86.15	19.335
1280	129.01	130.94	97.344		690	86.29	85.38	18.039
1270	128.28	130.17	97.033		680	85.57	84.61	16.799
1260	127.56	129.40	96.692		670	84.84	83.83	15.615
1250	126.84	128.63	96.320		660	84.12	83.06	14.488
1240	126.11	127.85	95.914		650	83.40	82.29	13.416
1230	125.39	127.08	95.473		640	82.67	81.52	12.400
1220	124.66	126.31	94.994		630	81.95	80.74	11.440
1210	123.94	125.54	94.476		620	81.22	79.97	10.533
1200	123.22	124.76	93.916		610	80.50	79.20	9.680
1190	122.49	123.99	93.312		600	79.78	78.43	8.879
1180	121.77	123.22	92.664		590	79.05	77.66	8.128
1170	121.04	122.45	91.968		580	78.33	76.88	7.426
1160	120.32	121.67	91.224		570	77.60	76.11	6.771
1150	119.60	120.90	90.429		560	76.88	75.34	6.162
1140	118.87	120.13	89.583		550	76.16	74.57	5.596
1130	118.15	119.36	88.683		540	75.43	73.79	5.072
1120	117.42	118.59	87.730		530	74.71	73.02	4.589
1110	116.70	117.81	86.722		520	73.98	72.25	4.142
1100	115.98	117.04	85.658		510	73.26	71.48	3.732
1090	115.25	116.27	84.538		500	72.54	70.71	3.356
1080	114.53	115.50	83.361		490	71.81	69.93	3.011
1070	113.80	114.72	82.128		480	71.09	69.16	2.696
1060	113.08	113.95	80.840		470	70.36	68.39	2.409
1050	112.36	113.18	79.495		460	69.64	67.62	2.149
1040	111.63	112.41	78.097		450	68.92	66.84	1.912
1030	110.91	111.64	76.645		440	68.19	66.07	1.698
1020	110.18	110.86	75.141		430	67.47	65.30	1.505

[OldPossum]

You still have not told us why these tests are worthless. That you got into higher education and as a result, are doing well in the job market, presumably because you passed them, does not argue against them.

Please elucidate. I am interested in what you have to say.