GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

[tsugomaru]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

I've said this a million times, I'll say it again. Just because someone is Asian doesn't automatically mean they are smart. Apparently there are studies showing that there is some correlation between high levels of intelligence from Asian people, I have not seen any of those studies and if I were to see them, I could probably find some way to refute them. Back in the 1800s when the Chinese started to immigrate to America to work for the railroads, they assumed that Americans were smarter than the Chinese and they believe that it was because Americans had larger heads. However, when they measured the heads of the Chinese and Americans, they found out that the Chinese actually had larger heads. There is no way to classify whether or not someone will be intelligent or more likely to be intelligent based on their race.

However, I do believe that people who come from affluent families have a tendency to do better in school. Studies have shown that parents who have graduated high school and went to college tend to have children who will more like graduate high school and go to college. These same kids also score better on average than kids whose parents dropped out of high school and never went to college. That's not to say that it is always like this, you can have the richest kid in the neighborhood also be the dumbest guy you've have met, but in general, kids who come from affluent families tend to do better in school.

~Tsugomaru

[N.T.M.]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

If you're intelligent you should realize that the best way to have a good life is go to college so that you’re ensured a decent job, and so you would do the work to get the grade.

Overgeneralizing there, buddy. Your statement should include the majority, but not EVERYBODY.

Although I'd be considered having above-average-intelligence, I care very little for materialistic things. Therefore my effort regarding school does not accurately reflect my intelligence because I do not wish to have much in this world.

I'm sure you already knew that though. Just a minor error I guess.

[Bynary Fission]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

Cosmic M, All_that_Chaz: Yeah...you have a point. Like I said, I still debate it. I thought it was that after years of assessing myself and stuff. It probably isn't. But I can't say for sure. I did take an IQ test in 2nd grade, got into Talented and Gifted, in which only a few students were there. I took one years later, got mixed scores, some of which were very high. I don't exactly remember them.

Like you Cosmic M, I also consider myself extremely intelligent. I educate myself, and if I have a question, I'll get an answer.

I don't usually say this stuff cause it can sound egotistical. I may take an IQ test someday and really see what it is. But it's an issue I can never find a solid, definitive answer for.



~Bynary Fission

[All_That_Chaz]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

Getting into T.A.G. doesn't mean much. I was in T.A.G.

[Relambrien]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

An IQ test I took in 2nd grade put me at 156 for IQ. I don't believe it for a second.

Will edit later

[devonin]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

Well, you can have the same general level of intelligence your whole life, and in the usual formulation of IQ, your IQ will slowly drop over time. It rewards you for being smarter younger, so if you're just a quick kid, you'll score much higher when young than you will necessarily when older, especially since your interests, skillset and knowledge base become more refined and distinct as you grow older.

At 8, everyone is expected to know all the same kinds of things, so if you're just smart, you'll know categorically more than everyone else, and test really high.

Now, I've spent so many years in history, english and philosophy, and no time whatsoever with math, or hard sciences, that a general test of my intelligence would skew incredibly highly towards analysis and highly away from number manipulation etc.

Frankly, once you get past your first two years of highschool, I'm pretty content to say that no test not individually tailored to you could possibly provide an accurate map of your intellectual development.

[Bynary Fission]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

The reason IQ tests give you higher IQ tests younger is also due to the way it is calculated. If you are say, 12 years old and have the knowledge of an 18 year old, which may be the max on the test by the way, then you have an IQ of 160. If a 15 year old scores the same, his IQ is 130. He can't score any higher, but it still says his IQ is much lower than the 12 year old, though he is just as smart as the 12 year old, and probably even smarter.


While IQ does often decrease over the years, it is most likely due to a number of factors, and not just age.



~Bynary Fission

[devonin]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

Well, the formula for most of them explicitly compares intellectual age and chronological age. The simple reason IQ drops as you age if you don't gain any intelligence is division.

[tsugomaru]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

This isn't a place to post your GPA and SAT scores. This is a discussion about what they measure, you can go make your own thread in Chit-Chat called "POST YOUR GPA AND SAT SCORES".

~Tsugomaru

[Bynary Fission]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

I know devonin. However, IQ doesn't technically drop, the number on a piece of paper does. It says it's lower, but most like you've either stayed just as smart or gotten smarter. The only way to get dumber is become 100% ignorant of the world around you, suffer head trauma, or have children (Though this doesn't always cause a drop in IQ).




~Bynary Fission

[devonin]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

So if my level of intelligence and knowledge remain the same, as I age my IQ will lower. You acknowledge that this doesn't make you less intelligent, just changes the number on a page, but you still feel that any IQ test measures something useful or significant?

[masamursha]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

I was in T.A.G too.

didn't seem like much of an accomplishment, The only prerequisites for it iirc were to do very well on some certain test.

[Dark Ronin]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

Although I'd be considered having above-average-intelligence, I care very little for materialistic things. Therefore my effort regarding school does not accurately reflect my intelligence because I do not wish to have much in this world.

You’re right. I never really thought about it that way. I guess that means I was right in the first place. Thank you for correcting me.

I really don’t know how any test could measure intelligence perfectly. It’s nearly impossible. Almost anyone can sit down and talk with someone to determine whether or not they are intelligent, but it’s just something you know. Intelligence is defined as, "a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn." I would have to say that the most intelligent man in the world would be someone like Solomon Shereshevskii who physically cannot forget anything. His ability to learn is extraordinary. But maybe some professors are more intelligent than he is because of the amount of information they currently know. It’s a mixture of so many different things that there just isn’t anyway to put a definite number to it. I hate to use this analogy but it’s almost like video games. Halo is a great FPS, and Final Fantasy is a great RPG. But you can’t really say which is the best because they are in completely different genres. I just can’t see one person being the best at everything, or one test being able to test for everything equally.

[devonin]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

SImply having an exceptional (even perfect) memory doesn't make you intelligent. In fact, photographic memory is a fairly common facility of savants who lack many other skills, abilities and qualities we'd associate with intelligence.

Simply having the ability to recall doesn't mean you can understand what you're recalling, analyze it, or otherwise use that knowledge in a useful way. I could memorize the schematics of a jet aircraft, and could tell you neither how it flies, or actually construct one even if given the necessary tools and materials.

[Bynary Fission]

Re: GPA's accuracy reflecting intelligence.

@Devonin: I do believe IQ tests can be used to measure intelligence in some people. But they're very narrow in the range of intelligence that they test. For example, if somebody could play ten instruments by the age of 12, sing in three languages, and paint beautiful masterpieces, but struggled in math, science, and biology, and had difficulty logically stringing bits of information together to create a theory or statement, does it make him any less intelligent than the kid who excels at the areas he lacks in but replicate any of his musical and artistic accomplishments? No. The musically and artistically gifted kid would score extremely low on a standard IQ test. The logical kid would score far higher. But does that make the artistic kid any less intelligent?


The problem with IQ tests and intelligence is that it is often defined by a narrow spectrum of abilities. But intelligence exists in many forms. Interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and linguistic. That's a mouthful isn't it? Until they develop a test that can test for all forms of intelligence, IQ will never be an accurate number. And going by the true definition of intelligence, knowledge, which is frequently tested for in IQ tests, is irrelevant to your actual intelligence.


This is why GPA and IQ tests (Yes, GPA too) is such an inaccurate way to test for intelligence in many individuals. It is so limited in what they test in. While IQ can be accurate for many left-brained people, it isn't for everybody else, which constitutes a large part of the population. My mother has absolutely no bias towards the left or right sides of her brain. She is equally skilled in both right-brained and left-brained activities. For her a standard IQ test would not be accurate because she possesses several forms of right-brained intelligence that IQ tests don't measure.


So you see why I never liked the term "IQ"? Tests frequently give scores higher or lower than their actual values. They don't assimilate all forms of intelligence to give one, unifying, accurate number that determines your TRUE intelligence. When somebody says you're a genius because you have a GPA of 4.0, or an IQ of 150+, it probably isn't true. Or it may be. All I'm saying is, there needs to be more research done in the field of intelligence before a truly accurate figure can be given.




~Bynary Fission