Intelligence tests defined
Intelligence: I have two memes to say about it
Some forms of intelligence are impossible to calculate.
My dad had a 5th grade education. He could count cards and would often arrive home with money from the bars where he played rummy. He’s the one you wanted by your side in a bar fight. And yet, when I needed emotional support, he was the one who listened.
Dad’s test anxiety was so extreme that when testing was required to keep his job at the post office, he couldn’t pass it. There was no “grandfathered in” and 3 people had to be hired to replace him.
My son, my daughter, and I have about the same IQ range.
- Robert passed his calculus classes as an exchange student in Spain. In one year, he learned to speak Spanish as well as a native. He speaks several languages, and plays several musical instruments. He writes academic papers that are peer reviewed, and published.
- Lydia could’ve been a stand-up comedian. The quips she can come up with in seconds are amazing. She could sell fire to Satan and convince God to buy a cell phone.
- What I know about computers, I learned out of desperation. It took months to learn how to turn on a cell phone, make a call and turn it off. I couldn’t use a comma or an apostrophe correctly if my life depended upon it. I can ask, “Where’s the bathroom?” in 5 languages.
However, I was rather notorious in school when it came to this:
- If dinosaurs were old and stupid, how did they survive for so long? (years later, it was discovered the were fast and smart)
- How can we believe a scientific theory without question if it can’t even tell us how subatomic particles function? (we still have a lot to learn)
- Why do we kill so many trees each year when hemp is cheaper and grows fast? (Greed)
- Why is your hair purple? (I asked a doctor that once. He didn’t read the instructions that said to use the shampoo for grey hair once a week and not daily)
The way my convoluted brain processes words, it’s a good thing I didn’t go into the military.
Was I just ordered to aim at the general?
What is my point?
Intelligence tests mean nothing if a person gets over 130 on an IQ test and can’t function at a job, in a social situation, or in a relationship.
Until we consider the balance between heart and mind, intelligence tests are just another way to make other people feel inferior.
This is brilliant. And so true. Because I don’t have a curly piece of paper, I have nothing to prove I was a top of the notch financial analyst as well as a good money and time manager. Go for jobs and I was ‘over qualified’ because I had experience or my boss to be was young enough to be my grand daughter. I stunned one interviewer by having common sense. I didn’t get that job either.
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And we wonder why 1st world countries are going down the drain. Bosses hire the youngest generation to reach adulthood, thinking it means they’ll have an employee for many years. They soon find the employee wants to be paid for the job but doesn’t want to actually work.
I’m fortunate to have a boss who values experience. There are 3 older people employed for our dedication and knowledge. There aren’t many places like that.
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No, there aren’t. I also found that the graduates I worked with may have a curly bit of paper, but no logical common sense.
I was always popular for chalking darts matches as I was old school and didn’t need a calculator or electronic scoreboard.
I still see one guy’s face when he went up to retrieve his darts adding them up for me when I’d already done that and taken it off his score before he reached the board!
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I can imagine you were a veritable god for being able to do what anyone over 60 was taught to do.
Kids are taught how to use a calculator, but not taught how to count back change to see if they were shorted — or to be able to do it as a cashier if the power goes out.
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McDs had a power cut but as the tills weren’t working and nobody could add up, you couldn’t even get a cup of tea!
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I have watched as an older cashier helped a younger one learn how to count back change. It was like trying to teach me geometry.
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Several of my friends who are veterans tell me that “Army intelligence” is an oxymmoron.
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My 3rd husband was in the military and he said the same thing. 😅
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“over 130 on an IQ test and can’t function at a job, in a social situation, or in a relationship.”
That’s a lot of Asperger’s people you’re talking about there.
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I was considering the kids living in their parents basements while they play video games, and people like my 1st husband who was a mechanical genius but couldn’t hold a job.
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So true, good examples and brilliant ✨
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Thanks. 😊
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Thanks for reblogging. 😊
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Thought for today, courtesy of Joelle 👍
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Thanks for reblogging 😊
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Welcome, Joelle 🤗❤️🤗
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There are different kinds of intelligence.
My present husband missed out on a lot of schooling because he needed annual operations and there wasn’t tutorial support in children’s hospitals back then. He was convinced he was thick. He never went for promotion in his career because he thought he couldn’t ‘do’ exams, although he often found himself allocated a lot of higher responsibilities and is one of the most asture people-readers I know. Since retirement, he’s retrained as an MOT test inspector and is one of the few applicants who passed the exam first time with almost 100% success. He still tells me he isn’t very bright.
My youngest daughter had undiagnosed dyslexia (our education authority didn’t recognise it or test for it back then) and as she approached her GCSEs I was concerned by the wide gap between parents’ day feedback and her exam results. When we came back from hearing the results of a private assessment she told me, ‘I am pleased, Mum. I thought I was just thick.’ She went on to university, travelled the world and is now holding down a responsible post as a highly valued member of a New Zealand government offshoot.
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By the description of your present husband, he has all the right gifts to do the job he is doing. It is rare to find the perfect job for your skills.
Your youngest daughter’s story happens far too often. I was 32 when I was going for a bachelor’s degree. I was tested for dyslexia and found that how I learned was at a 3rd grade level in some cases — but what I knew was graduate level. With books on tape, study groups, and additional time, I graduated with a B+ average. I, too, believed what your daughter believed — that I was somehow deficient. It is such a relief to find out what the problem is and find ways to maximize your learning style.
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I really enjoyed this and it’s so true. So many to grade graduates and many more ‘brilliantly clever’ people can socialise, hold a conversation or even make a cup of tea/ coffee 💜💜
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We were fortunate to be born during a time when learning how to discern, to read, to write, to spell and to do math was considered important.
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Yes indeed 💜😂
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So very true. I come at this from a different side than many of those here. I have an excellent memory, so retain facts easily and subsequently have a long list of qualifications. Yet all the wisdom I have is read. Sure I can quote Voltaire, Keats or indeed Oppenheimer and Hawking but this is wisdom repeated by rote.Book-bound as opposed to original thought.
Mind you, Issac Asimov once opined “The fool who knows he is a fool is usually the smartest person in the room”
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Isaac Asimov is one of my favorite SciFi writers. He had a way of presenting ideas in a way that all us common people could understand.
Having an excellent memory is a gift that many of us wish we possessed. I have no doubt you’ve used it wisely.
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Ah floridaborne. I have not used it wisely at all. It has won me many t-shits in pub quizzes and a few bottles of wine. Hopefully that counts. Isaac is indeed a great writer.
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The fact that you look back at what you have done with “open eyes” is wise, indeed.
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As a retired elementary teacher of thirty-one years, I love everything about this post. I taught students with specific learning problems who were incredibly bright. Then some children got straight A’s in school but lacked common-sense intelligence. Some of my students would do fine in the real world if school didn’t make them feel like a failure because they were honest and hard-working kids with tons of grit. Trying to reduce intelligence to a mathematical formula or number makes about as much sense as telling women they can’t be doctors and men can’t be nurses.
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You are so correct!
I pushed the “publish” button with trepidation, not knowing how the post was going to be received, but I felt compelled to write it.
Thanks for your supportive words. I didn’t know that so many people felt the same way that I do.
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IQ tests are notoriously slanted towards the biases of the test provider. Traditionally, white, male, and well ‘educated’.
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I’ve heard the “white male” explanation before. Some of the tasks, like counting 9 numbers backwards, isn’t a black or white thing.
However, I did mention before that if I had to be tested to see if I could survive in a 1960’s style ghetto — like Cabrini Green in Chicago — I would fail miserably as my survival IQ would be well below 60.
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