Charles Murray, champion for general intelligence, defender of gender and racial differences of IQ scores, surprisingly argues that the SAT should be abolished. His argument involves three premises: Achievement test scores predict first year college GPAs better than SAT scores. The rabid focus on SAT by students, parents, schools, and the coaching industry is harmful. […]
September 5, 2009
I’ve been thinking about cognitive ability tilt lately. Most IQ and aptitude tests look at verbal, mathematical, and sometimes spatial ability. People generally tilt towards one ability—e.g., more verbal than mathematical—and the type of ability tilt influences one’s choice in studying future academic disciplines. The current GRE measures both verbal and mathematical ability (the writing […]
June 14, 2009
I have a quick additional thought to my previous post on testing for crystalized and fluid g. If the verbal GRE section is mostly a test for fluid g and the math section is mostly a test for crystalized g for humanities majors, where the reverse is true for science and engineering majors, then it […]
June 9, 2009
Many readers of this blog are familiar with the term ‘general intelligence‘ or g. It is sometimes defined at the most raw form of human intelligence: the ability to handle cognitive complexity. When it come to testing mental abilities, g can manifest itself as crystalized or fluid intelligence. Yet, both factors involve pattern recognition and analogical reasoning. […]
May 20, 2009
I found this WSJ article via Steve Sailer discussing the ineffectiveness of SAT preparation material, which is a highly lucrative industry. The following paragraph caught my eye: The college counselors’ report concludes that, on average, prep courses yield only a modest benefit, “contrary to the claims made by many test-preparation providers.” It found that SAT […]
April 9, 2009
Half Sigma has a recent post on estimating President Obama’s IQ. Of course, he bases the estimate on Obama’s time in Harvard Law School, and, in part, guessing what Obama’s LSAT score might have been. Half Sigma doesn’t do much defending the estimate that Obama’s IQ is at least 140+; he instead appeals to a […]
March 26, 2009
The Audacious Epigone posted the following chart of IQ estimates of intended college major via SAT scores: Intended major IQ Interdisciplinary studies 114.0 Physical sciences 111.2 Mathematics and statistics 110.7 English and literature 110.1 Foreign language 109.8 Philosophy and religious studies 109.6 Social sciences 109.3 Library science 108.7 Engineering 108.5 Biological and biomedical sciences 107.7 […]
March 13, 2009
I showed the racial breakdown of LSAT takers in my previous post. Now let’s look at their group IQ’s according to my chart: African-Americans, as a group, score roughly a 92 IQ; Asian-Americans, as a group, score roughly a 106 IQ; Caucasians, as a group, score roughly a 107 IQ; Mexican Americans, as a group, score roughly a 99 […]
March 10, 2009
The Undiscovered Jew recommend to me that I should look up some data on gender and racial differences in LSAT scores. I did so happen to find some data—a real gold-mine, in fact—on these group differences. I’ll let the charts speak for themselves. You can find the report from which the data comes here.
June 10, 2010
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