Intelligence Tests

Intelligence testing is going to vary by location and race. It is very hard to have a standardized test in the United States with the amount of people, different cultures, different races, and different living and educational conditions throughout the U.S. Standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT are going to show much different results in intercity school systems than in wealthy suburbs. Curriculum and teachers, as well as teaching tools and technology, are much better in wealthy suburbs than those of intercity schools. The fact is, it is hard to even the playing field of standardizing a test for everyone. Intelligence testing is not a fair type of testing. Some classes offered in wealthy suburbs cannot be taught in intercity schools, perhaps from lack of funding or cognitive level of the students attending the school. 

The quizzes we did in class are a perfect example of why intelligence testing is not fair. The first test I took directly applied to my lifestyle and culture. I easily got a 9 out of 10. The second test, however, was quite different. It was the Original Australian Test of Intelligence, not relevant to my life what-so-ever. When answering these 10 questions, I was 1 for 10 correct. This goes to show how much I actually knew about a different culture from around the world that I was never faced with in my life. I didn’t know that you could not eat a kangaroo because it would make children and adults sick. I had no idea that you could eat water. The culture I live in is quick to think that other ideas are stupid and don’t make sense, where as in the Australian culture, this makes perfect sense and they would think we were stupid for saying that we drink water or that flour and water-lilies are not related closely to sugar. 

These tests greatly prove that intelligence tests may be able to be standardized for a specific culture, living style, or location, but not for the whole world, or multiple cultures. I was on a cruise last year and I was talking to a girl from Arizona. I referred to something that was “sweet” as in cool or rad. She looked at me as if I was weird. She had never heard that before or ever though about using that in the context I had used it. It goes to show that location and culture do matter.