What We Know, Are Still Getting Wrong, and Have Yet to Learn about the Relationships among the SAT, Intelligence and Achievement. What do SAT and IQ tests measure? General intelligence predicts school and life success. 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.
But this argument is wrong. Which Measures IQ Better, ACT or SAT? What Does That Mean for Which to Take? Does the ACT or SAT measure intelligence better?
What does this mean about which test you should take? One way to define IQ is the ability to solve problems based on given information. Here, we look at whether the ACT or SAT is more related to IQ (spoiler: there is an answer!) And what this means for your test-taking strategy. What Is IQ? To make sense of the results presented below, let's start with some key terms and definitions you should know. IQ (Intelligence Quotient) IQ has a number of different technical definitions, none of which change the conclusion of this article much. A key phrase here is given information. IQ tests generally don't test you on learned information. Learned Information You've probably already guessed the meaning of this based on the definition of IQ above.
This includes the bulk of what's taught to you in school. By contrast, given information means that you should theoretically be able to solve a problem based only on the information given to you. SAT Questions. The Limits of Intelligence. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Spanish Nobel-winning biologist who mapped the neural anatomy of insects in the decades before World War I, likened the minute circuitry of their vision-processing neurons to an exquisite pocket watch.
He likened that of mammals, by comparison, to a hollow-chested grandfather clock. Indeed, it is humbling to think that a honeybee, with its milligram-size brain, can perform tasks such as navigating mazes and landscapes on a par with mammals. A honeybee may be limited by having comparatively few neurons, but it surely seems to squeeze everything it can out of them. At the other extreme, an elephant, with its five-million-fold larger brain, suffers the inefficiencies of a sprawling Mesopotamian empire. Signals take more than 100 times longer to travel between opposite sides of its brain—and also from its brain to its foot, forcing the beast to rely less on reflexes, to move more slowly, and to squander precious brain resources on planning each step. Experts at loss to explain large jump in average IQ. Older generation likely smarting over data By TODD ACKERMANCopyright 1998 Houston Chronicle Science Writer In modern memory, the younger generation rarely has had any doubt it is smarter than the older generation.
Now, there may be data to suggest it's right. IQ scores are rising so dramatically, say researchers who study intelligence, that a high proportion of people considered average at the turn of the 20th century would be regarded as significantly below average by today's tests. "People are smarter now, they know more," says Cecil Reynolds, a Texas A&M University professor of neuroscience and educational psychology. More specifically, psychologists cite as likely explanations better education, improved socioeconomic status, healthier nutrition, smaller families, urbanization, even television and video games making minds more agile. One explanation for the increase is not possible: heredity.
"But the question is, what do you mean by intelligence? " IQ Isn't Set In Stone, Suggests Study That Finds Big Jumps, Dips In Teens : Shots - Health News. Hide caption Brain researchers say the big fluctuations in IQ performance they found in teens were not random — or a fluke. iStockphoto.com For as long as there's been an IQ test, there's been controversy over what it measures.
Do IQ scores capture a person's intellectual capacity, which supposedly remains stable over time? Or is the Intelligent Quotient exam really an achievement test — similar to the S.A.T. — that's subject to fluctuations in scores? The findings of a new study add evidence to the latter theory: IQ seems to be a gauge of acquired knowledge that progresses in fits and starts.