IQ Tests are Not an Accurate Measure of a Person's Intelligence

When one speaks of intelligence or how bright another person is, the often quoted figure is the IQ or intelligence quotient. It is the most often used standard of how smart a person is. This paper shall look at what intelligence tests measure, how the IQ tests measure intelligence and interrogate their history. It shall then apply the tests to school policy and hence evaluate their validity.

Knowledge isn’t all about what people know or how well they are in school. IQ tests test the intelligence of the person; however they test the pure thinking capacity rather than what people know. This means that intelligence comes from the entire cognitive thinking ability and not what they

     Since the development of the intelligence quotient, schools in every part of the world have been using the IQ test to categorize millions of students into three groups. These three groups, which are the gifted, the average, and the retarded, are falsifications that perpetuate in our world culture and cause many gifted students to be deemed retarded and vice a versa. Why then is the IQ test so heavily relied on in our school systems? For schools the answer is simple, an I.Q. test is a reliable predictor of a students later performance in academics. This answer is relatively true, but where the I.Q. test falls extremely short is with testing the multiple

Sir Francis Galton (1869, 1883) quantified traits that were assumed to be correlated, and developed the first comprehensive test of intelligence. By the end of the 19th century, the foundation was laid for modern day intelligence testing (Wicket, 1998). In 1905, the French psychologist Alfred Binet published the first modern intelligence test to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum (Neiser, et al. 1996). Shortly thereafter in 1908 and 1911, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon published revisions of the Binet intelligence test (Wicket). The mental age concept was adopted to express the results in adequate units. The concept is based on an individual’s performance in comparison to the average performance of individuals in a specific chronological age group (Kaplin, & Saccuzzo).

Intelligent quotient test is defined as a test that has been formulated and it is often used to measure human intelligence. There are many different types of IQ tests that are used to determine the level of intelligence between different test subjects. IQ testing has a wide range of application and in different specialized professions. Human resource managers have applied IQ testing as part of the tests administer during interviewing process. However, IQ testing has a wide application in research field where they are used to measure different traits across cultures or races. IQ testing has attracted many controversies, most of which support the assertion that IQ testing is indeed biased. This essay will present arguments in support of this standpoint.

On the contrary, those people who scored low on one kinds of ability test, were more likely to score badly on others as well. Meanwhile, Spearman also concluded that intelligence is a cognitive ability which could be measured and expressed numerically.

The main purpose of addressing the issue is to prove IQ scored is biased and spurious .Various articles and research papers prove that IQ scores fail to reflect a person’s intelligence. This top-ic is important because due to flawed IQ scores every year, many students are assigned to the wrong class, for example an intelligent student with a low IQ score is assigned to easier class and a student with a high IQ score who may not be intelligent in a particular field is assigned to a higher level class which can be difficult for that student. IQ Tests need to be redesigned to re-pair this major flaw in our academic system

Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.

IQ tests can be considered biased measures of intelligence, as there are many factors that have to deal with it. Even though IQ test are total fairness it all depends on a person’s social interaction rate. For example, if a test taker comes from a third world country where education is not available vs. a test taker here the scores will range. Bias is present when a test score has implications that relevant showing the portrayal of the subgroup of test takers. It often has to do with social viewpoint and knowledge about the world.

How is intelligence measured? How is it possible to just have one way to measure intelligence? Is there really only one way to measure every individual’s intelligence? According to psychologists Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg there is. Gardner and Sternberg have developed two different theories to do so. Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence is the way in which one carries out life goals. Gardner chose eight abilities that held to meet criteria: linguistic (speak and write well), logical-mathematical (use logical and mathematical skills to solve problems such as scientific quotations), spatial (think and reason about objects in three dimensional space), musical (preform, understand and enjoy music), bodily-kinesthetic (manipulate

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

Intelligence tests even in these days remain somewhat controversial, from its interpretations, to their classifications in scoring on bell curves. So is the magnitude of debate, that many professionals in assessments question the value of these tests. One aspect of much controversy is the use of a single or multiple scores to determine intelligence. Some general intelligence assessments only use a score, g. This apparently reflects the variance underlying shared in different series of tests performance. Nevertheless, recent theories have suggested that human intelligence can be better measured in terms of multiple types of intelligence rather than a single score. One of those theories is the gf-gc; this theory indicates that there are two types of intelligence: f = fluid and c = crystalized.

With IQ testing and the commonly-held belief that intelligence is fixed and static, receiving those test scores can positively or negatively impact a student. Trained psychologists are required to administer and examine IQ tests, however this task is often given to undertrained teachers. With a lower score, students may stop trying in school, thus it is crucial for educators to realize the limitations of a test score (Law, 1995, p. 9). Any test or combination thereof will only provide an estimate of knowledge and not an absolute. As quoted in Ford (2004), the Office of Civil Rights (2000) stated “No single test score can be considered a definitive measure of a student’s knowledge” (p. 15). Also, many believe that IQ equals innate ability, leading to discrimination. Gregory (2004), as quoted in Ford, recognized that a test score is neutral until we assign it value (2004, p. 7). The national and global impact of identification procedures is huge. Underutilized talent is not developed properly in school, leading to less overall contribution to society and especially the economy (Warne 2013 p. 488). Consequently, the country as a whole would benefit from reformed gifted identification

Ridley concludes by saying, "IQ tests are inherently biased towards certain kinds of minds." Basically, IQ test results need to consider all the facts regarding the person's education, character, and

When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because