From: wombat@nfinit.enet.dec.com (Christopher M. Conway)
Subject: Re: T=What Correlation?
Reply-To: wombat@nfinit.enet.dec.com
Organization: Prickly Wombat Enterprises
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:47:19 GMT


In article <1992Jul28.224717.28406@ncsu.edu>, tai-sa@ailab.ncsu.edu (Scott A Tai) writes:
- dh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu (David O Hunt) writes:
- 
- |> > You're not more intelligent, you simply scored higher on a test
- |> > whose validity is questionable.
- |> 
- |> I don't disagree on the debatable correlation between test scores and
- |> intelligence, though I will say that I believe there is a _loose_
- |> correlation.
- 
- The idea that standardized tests are "accurate predictors of future 
- academic performance" is indeed a myth.  I refer anyone interested to 
- Allan Nairn's 1980 publication of "The Reign of ETS: The Company that 
- Makes Up Minds".  This publication was a six-year compilation of 
- numerous studies and inquiries into all facets of the Educational 
- Testing Service.

We're not talking about academic performance. Academic performance has no more
to do with intelligence than the intelligence tests you rail so against. There
is a *correlation*, though not one-to-one, between these test scores, academic
performance, and "intelligence", whatever we mean by that. Some very
intelligent people cannot succeed in college. Are we to start accusing the
colleges of being biased because of this? Frankly, people with intelligence
bent in this direction would be *hurt* by the discipline required to make
it through college. My wife, who I met through Mensa, has a high school
diploma. She finds college as frustrating and stupid as she did high school.
She's attended some college, but has not made it past freshman year. I have
met other Mensans who have only a high school education.

- 
- Particularly disturbing to me was the sheer bulk of evidence to
- suggest that ETS tests do not predict future academic performance.  
- It appears that a random-roll with a pair of dice was as accurate 
- in 85%(LSAT), 89%(SAT), and 93%(GRE) as an ETS in predicting which 
- students would perform better, based on first-year grades of 
- entering students.

Again, grades do not always conform very well to intelligence. Our high school
valedictorian wasn't a particularly bright person; she was, however, willing
to do the grunge work that the more intelligent students weren't interested
in. Most of the *truly* brilliant people I've met have high C to low B
college averages. They have more *interesting* and challenging things to do
than figure out what the damn prof wants in response to *this* question.
- 
- Interestingly, one study found that graduate-school research
- "success" was NEGATIVELY correlated with GRE scores.  The GRE is so 
- bad at predicting future academic research, in fact, that most 
- universities consider the GRE "optional" for admissions to graduate 
- programs.  What's next?  Picking students based on lower GRE scores?   
- Probably just as sound as picking students based on high SAT scores.

I've never heard of that. All the graduate schools I've looked at (okay, it's
only four) required a GRE, in some cases with an age limit on it (i.e., GRE
within last five years).
- 
- There were other studies which mocked the idea of an ETS test as an 
- accurate predictor.  One study found that the amount of uric acid in a 
- student's blood was a more accurate predictor of academic performance 
- than an ETS test.  Other studies have shown that factors like height, 
- hair color, and white-cell count compared favorably with an ETS's test 
- "predictability.."

Not having seen these studies, I can't comment. I have never claimed a one-to-
one correlation of SAT scores and intelligence. No one does, I don't think. But
I stand by this statement, backed up with all my experience meeting people:
generally, people who score higher on these standardized tests are more
intelligent. This is strictly *in my experience*, and is *not* contradictable,
unless you happen to know all the people *I've* met.

--
Boycott Kodak
--------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher M. Conway		| U*ix and C Guru
wombat@nfinit.enet.dec.com      | Legalize Freedom!
wombat@juliet.ll.mit.edu        | Marrou/Lord in '92!
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