From: ajr@holly.massima.com (ARNOLD J RIMMER)
Subject: Re: IQ Test? 
Followup-To: <01GTEV4BIAO2BDJFRV@ccfvx3.draper.com>
Reply-To: ajr@holly.massima.com (ARNOLD J RIMMER)
Organization: Massima Consumer Products, Inc., USA Division
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:32:04 GMT
Division: Holygraphic Reasearch and Development, Sector 11


From: <01GTEV4BIAO2BDJFRV@ccfvx3.draper.com>
>
>>From: Arnold J Rimmer <ajr%ice.massima.com@surname.draper.com>
>>Message-ID: <1993Jan11.103830@massima.com>
>>
>>People People People...
>>
>>What is all the fuss about?
>>IQ tests are not true indicators of intelligence or of mental accuity...
>>Outside of academic pursuits, does anyone really care what your IQ, SAT,
>>or GPA scores are?  Only to those who use it as a crutch, perhaps to make
>>
>Ask a pre-med student to stop fussing about his/her grades and MCAT
>scores!  Without good ones, he/she can forget about even getting the
>chance to try to become a doctor.  Oh, sorry, medicine is just an
>academic pursuit...  What about those Wall Street firms that asked for
>Analogies?  Or those professions that require standardized tests of
>continuing competency?
>
>test on paper.  And what right do they have to grade my intelligence or
>>potential by their set standards.
>
>I concur with your sentiment, but harsher judgements are made
>in the workaday world.  Say you're interviewing someone for
>a high management position involving public relations, and you
>discover he/she got confused when you used the words "retain",
>"usurp", and "defer" in you sentences.  You might even become
>suspicious if the folder indicates he/she should be a verbally
>proficient person.  In fact, you'd probably wonder if this
>person really has it upstairs, assuming he/she went to school
>in the U.S.  In other words, you've just made an IQ judgement,
>on the basis of far fewer "vocabulary" words than would appear
>on an IQ test.
>
>In fact, if someone didn't know the meaning of just one word,
>like "coincidence", many people would probably think he/she's
>an "idiot".  Tell me that's fair???  It happens all the time -
>a one-word intelligence test.

Listen... I agree. It is not fair... that's my point.
But studying to be a doctor and actually being a doctor are two different shades
all together.  And as far as tests for continuing competency... where?
At McDonalds? Food Lion?  To become a lawyer, one must pass the bar,
to become a doctor one must get a medical degree, to become a professional
engineer or accountant or even a beautician, one must pass some sort of 
test to be qualified.  These are all tests of competency in a specfic area
of life, whereas the IQ test is a sweeping generality of overall intelligence.
For example, in order to lawfully drive a car in the US, one must have a
driver's license.  To get a driver's license, you must pass the guidelines
set up by Department of Transportation which includes a test.  The test
determines whether the individual is competent to drive an automobile.
This is an example of competency exam. A competency exam determines whether
an individual has the skills to perform a certain tasks, ie drive a car.
What does the IQ test measure?  The capacity of thought, intelligence,
or just good test taking skills.  Well, actually, if you think about, the
IQ is supposed to measure mental competency.  But, what is the a measure of
mental comptency, can you actually assign a value to someone's intelligence
or grade them on scales of "ditch-water dumb" to "genius". How can you attain
mental capacity or intelligence from a test?  Is it fair label people
as "idiots" or "genius" because of some answers they put on bubble sheet. 
How can anyone possibly comprehend something as metaphysical as intelligence.
The human mind is such an uncharted area in science as far as intelligence and
capacity to learn and store information.

The whole thing just disturbs me.
--
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