Does One Intelligence Test Fit All?
Most countries in the world have different methods of educating their youth. I was educated in the UK and my experience there was different to everyone I’ve met from other areas of the world and also from some others in the UK. It then seems ridiculous that students from different parts of the world, should be tested the same way and their scores compared.
The SAT is a standardized test of reading, writing and math, taken by students in their junior year of high school in the US. Colleges make admission decisions based on students’ scores. Subject tests are also offered in languages, sciences, math, history and literature and some institutions require one or more of these. Students in the US are educated from elementary school with the SAT as the end goal. Their education is tailored to the demands of this test; they are taught the necessary material and given advice on how best to succeed. In other words, US students are trained to succeed on the SAT.
Many institutions in the US also evaluate their international applicants based on the SAT. I applied to 5 of the top universities in the UK and was offered admission to all of them. However, I did not have the same experience with my US applications. I took the SAT twice and taught myself US history and literature subject tests — none of which corresponded to my A-level curriculum. I was not accepted to a single institution of equal standing to those that accepted me in the UK and was rejected by US institutions ranked hundreds of places below those that accepted me in the UK. My friend Becky had a similar experience. Although admitted to Cambridge, she was rejected by all US institutions she applied to and had to take a gap year between high school and university to concentrate solely on her SATs, to improve her score enough to be admitted to Princeton the following year.
I don’t doubt the intelligence of the people at these US institutions. I’m sure they are some of our generation’s greatest minds. My point is that there are probably many international students who deserve to be among them but due to inappropriate testing procedures were not admitted. It would be ludicrous to put an 18 year old, educated in the US, with an SAT score of 2300, into an A level Psychology exam and ask them to achieve the A* grade (90% or above) required to study Psychology at Cambridge. So why do the US do a similar thing to their international applicants? McGill didn’t expect me to succeed in tests that I hadn’t been trained for, they looked at the scores that tested MY education — my A level results. McGill are on to something important — if we are not all educated the same way, why should we be evaluated the same way? Yes intelligence exists all over the world, but in many different ways and so it is important that intelligence testing reflects that.
