Re: Genius and Y chromosomes.

Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Tue, 7 Jan 1997 10:31:28 +0000


Michael Lorrey:
>To anyone who denigrates any kind of evaluation, be it IQ, SAT, or
>Football touchdowns, what have you, I say: Those who say it isn't worth
>diddly do so because they didn't do diddly in that field of competition.

Let's take this out of the realm of personal opinion and into
methodology, shall we? (and let's assume that everyone on this list
had extraordinarily high SAT scores, I don't see any need to throw
numbers at each other.) From a methodological standpoint, any test
claiming to measure an innate ability should be administered on a
one-time, non-prepared basis. And yet, those who take standardized
tests more than once usually measure a significant upward score
differential. That is precisely WHY the Princeton Review makes
bucketloads of money preparing students to take standardized tests,
and why their methods work--they teach that you have to approach each
test as a game of sorts, not a measure of inner ability.

Sin,

Kathryn Aegis