Do You Agree With This Quote About IQ?

mathmom
Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:20:53 +0000

I agree that if students read more and practiced math problems they’d do better on SAT tests. But SAT tests are in no way IQ tests. Back in the old analogy days they bore a bit more of a relationship to one, but not anymore.

I don’t really think either the SAT or ACT measure “reasoning skills”, I think they measure more than anything else family wealth, how good your schools are, and the extent to which your culture values doing well on tests.

The classic SAT math problem is: You have two sizes of tiles to cover a floor with. If 2/3 are covered with the 2 sq ft tiles and 1/3 is covered with the 1 sq ft tiles and the floor is 90 sq ft total. How many tiles will you need? My brilliant math kid managed to get this one wrong - though a 4th grader ought to be able to figure it out.