IQ tests measure things that can be measured! Many areas of human excellence, however, cannot easily be measured – such as artistic and musical creativity, emotional maturity, intuition, sensitivity to the needs of others, keeping a cool head in emergencies, being able to impersonate other people, and inventiveness. Some people may excel in these areas and yet perform poorly in tests that are language-based. Students who have failed in language- or number-based GCE’s often do very well on university courses in the arts. Similarly, some people who are poor at languages are excellent at computer sciences.Einstein’s schoolwork was not very good – yet IQ tests are supposed to correlate well with school performance. Einstein claimed that his initial idea on the relativity of time and space struck him in a moment of inspiration while he was daydreaming that he was riding on a sunbeam. This kind of imaginative thinking is difficult to measure using IQ tests.
Cottrel, Stella. (1999) The Study Skills Handbook, 3rd edn. Palgrave Macmillan, p47.
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