My personal, unfinished-Sociology-degree opinion --
--Is that an SAT score is probably much more accurate, in some way, than an "Intelligence Quotient" score, but for diff. reasons. As I've said, my thinking on all this really changed after reading Stephen Jay Gould's _The Mismeasure of Man_ some years back. For one thing, there's still an obsession with ranking folks by numerical "scores" that lends itself to a pejorative hierarchical and perhaps unconscious power-worshipping sort-of schaling of individuals in individuals' perceptions.
S. J. Gould also mentioned, IIRC, that to compile all the human attributes that we rightly or wrongly assemble into this vague notion of the faculty of "intelligence" -- and to furthermore extrapolate from that a unipolar, singular numerical score that foretells academic performance in certain environments, o anything else -- seems extremely without warrant. Yes, I know a standardized IQ is actually an average of 6 or 7 diff. IQ scores that doctors compile and then average together (or at least I remember it that way in my adolescence when I tried to peek at the doc's notes).
Even so - IQ seems to serve no service save for aptitude while one is a youngster in school -- and then only maybe. And I'd guess SAT is the same way -- for college. Nothing else. Flks trined in the soial sciences like psychology can be really defensive about its efficacy.
As J. Tyler himself said, and I quote: "An IQ score measures only how well one takes a standardized test."
When I finally discovered the IQ scores I'd been given by (an admittedly very human and therefore also faulty) doctor when I was 12, I wasn't unimpressed with my results. But I hated taking the tests to begin with, thought they were rubbish, and that they were bulshit. The doctors, after all, were hired by the govt. to find ways to keep me in school. And it didn't seem to be a concern that the school system itself might be fucked -- it was all me. Not them.
-B.
John Thornton wrote:
> IQ scores test only how well you did on a specific
type of test when compared to others. Nothing more.
> I think lots of people know their score. I have
taken a Stanford Binet test 3 times. Once in grade
school.
> It's no more indicative of anything than an SAT.
Actually your SAT has more bearing on your life than
your IQ score.
> I don't know why anyone would lie about their test
score either. To what end?
> Hell, I was eligible to join Mensa and look at what
a mess I am! IQ tests aren't exactly a joke but they
are not a measure of much either.
>
> John Thornton