Page 1 of 1 [ 7 posts ] 

Keniichi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jul 2011
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 617
Location: Spokane, WA

04 Aug 2012, 4:11 am

I seem to notice these days that theyre are alot of people who are geniuses in College(as in Graduated High school early, Running Start, or other programs),then there are the type who are smart, dont have to study, then ther are the type who joke around their entire time, then there is the learning disabled people who might be viewed as "slow", then there's the type who are geniuses but fail miserably school, and finally we have the type that arent good at tests and get labeled as 'slow'.
I seem to notice that MOST colleges go off of a IQ testing/structure, why is this?


_________________
Keniichi


FalsettoTesla
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 536
Location: North of North

04 Aug 2012, 4:36 am

The American college system never did make any sense to me.

In England it's your course results that matter, and while we do have SATS (although we pronounce them as sats, not S.A.Ts.) there are specific tests for specific subjects and the last time we have them is in year 9 (and they're thinking of removing that).



techn0teen
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Sep 2010
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 663

04 Aug 2012, 11:32 pm

I seem to notice that MOST colleges go off of a IQ testing/structure, why is this?

It is because it is the easiest way to evaluate a student. It is, by no means, the best. I have a wonderful, unfounded theory that it is how colleges disqualify otherwise fully capable poor students. Income and how well you do on a test are both interrelated. Never mind that there are students who just don't test well, but they do incredible projects pertaining to his or her area of study.

Intelligence is a quality not a quantity, so I never understood how IQ tests worked.



thewhitrbbit
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 May 2012
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,124

04 Aug 2012, 11:41 pm

I've never heard of a college asking for IQ tests.

All the colleges I applied to wanted to see course work, SATs and involvement (in that order).

As for why there are people who don't have to study? Some people have gifts. There are subjects I am sleep through and do well, there are subjects I struggle with.

As for why geniuses fail at school? Simple. They are bored. Our education system doesn't do enough to challenge the talented kids. (In fact, where I went to school, they did away with any programs to help the smart kids because it made the dumb kids sad.)



Keniichi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jul 2011
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 617
Location: Spokane, WA

05 Aug 2012, 5:00 am

techn0teen wrote:
I seem to notice that MOST colleges go off of a IQ testing/structure, why is this?

It is because it is the easiest way to evaluate a student. It is, by no means, the best. I have a wonderful, unfounded theory that it is how colleges disqualify otherwise fully capable poor students. Income and how well you do on a test are both interrelated. Never mind that there are students who just don't test well, but they do incredible projects pertaining to his or her area of study.

Intelligence is a quality not a quantity, so I never understood how IQ tests worked.

So why dont they just get rid of them? Why do teachers act surprised if someoen doesnt do well on a entrance test, and gets the 'approrpiate placement' in a class and theyre acing that class. (Like they need to be in a higher class).


_________________
Keniichi


VAGraduateStudent
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 13 Apr 2012
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 340
Location: Virginia, USA

13 Aug 2012, 9:26 am

Intelligence is not understood, and this is something that is excepted by the neurology, psychology, and sociology worlds, but not well known in the rest of the world, such as in the educational world. So when we put a numerical measure on it, we're just being arbitrary. It's like if we're all seeing who can run the fastest and we just go by the common measure for fastness. So let's say that most people seem to be able to run Y fast; that means that running X fast is "slow" and running Z fast is "super fast". It's a stupid way to categorize ability, let alone intelligence, but no one has yet come up with a better way.

WE know that this is a flawed system because there are people on WP who speak eloquently with professionally tested IQs of like 48. This happens because although some things are simple for them, other things are very hard. And the "normal control" is always a neurotypical person, whose brain may work entirely different. I know someone with a professionally tested IQ of 175 (so he said). He just had a regular job and didn't seem to have any special abilities. He didn't even know he was on the spectrum (he was).

Another very important thing to remember is that IQ tests (like ALL tests) are culturally biased, so this means that if you are from a different culture, uneducated, educated in an alternate way, or have a problem understanding culture because of another reason (literal thinking etc), you will not score very well on a test as a culture savvy person. For example, if you have a disadvantaged 11 year Black kid from Baltimore who is in remedial classes because he hasn't been to school enough to keep up, and he spends his days being recruited by a gang- if you take this kid and give him a test that involve questions about a yacht or croquet, will he understand that? Probably not, and he may be scored as "slow" even though he might be near-genius.



Ancalagon
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Dec 2007
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,302

13 Aug 2012, 12:35 pm

VAGraduateStudent wrote:
Another very important thing to remember is that IQ tests (like ALL tests) are culturally biased, so this means that if you are from a different culture, uneducated, educated in an alternate way, or have a problem understanding culture because of another reason (literal thinking etc), you will not score very well on a test as a culture savvy person. For example, if you have a disadvantaged 11 year Black kid from Baltimore who is in remedial classes because he hasn't been to school enough to keep up, and he spends his days being recruited by a gang- if you take this kid and give him a test that involve questions about a yacht or croquet, will he understand that?

Questions about yachts and croquet in an IQ test? IQ tests may have a cultural bias, but if so it is unintentional and subtle. They are intended to be as neutral as possible, even if they fail at it. There's no way they'd ask about yachts or croquet, and if they did, they'd have about as many problems with a middle-class 11 year old white kid.

The two colleges I'm familiar with don't care about your IQ score, they care about SAT or ACT score and high-school GPA.


_________________
"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." --G. K. Chesterton