Aren't there theories that good social skills are a form of intelligence?

And during this whole entire discussion we never defined "success".

It's kinda like comparing apples and oranges. I see Bill Gates' success as quite different than the Bush family, Clinton, and Reagan (actually you might see him as successful in TWO areas...).

I've seen the "geeky" labelled people in my high school go to college and absolutely blossom into a totally different person (one guy majored in engineering, has a great job doing what he loves, married, and is very happy....is that not success?)....and the popular, charismatic people from high school change into someone not so charismatic anymore. It's all relative, I guess......

PsychTau

What an odd argument!

IQ is not a great predicator of success anymore. We are a little more systems oriented these days. We reward plodders now vs. sheer briliance.

We seem to be talking about IQ, "academic potential". And we are also talking about Educational Extra Experience, I dare say that freshmen calculus is the same at harvard or a community college but the contacts you CAN make at those types of schools is nothing to scoff at.

And then we are talking I guess about social IQ . . as expressed by Gardner in his theories of multiple intellegences .. .

So anyway . .. it looks like y'all are just arguing for the sake of arguing with little or no merit to your arguments.

Well I guess that depends on whether you have a high number ;)

I don't believe that IQ numbers are BS at all.;)

LOL you guys are so funny. Yeah when you don't have the best grades, the best standardized test scores, the best jobs, went to the best schools, don't have high IQ's...yeah keep saying it's all empty numbers and names LOL.

I know a guy who graduated from Harvard and doesn't have the best social skills actually. He started his own hedge fund called Citadel. Now the funny thing is that he's in his 30's and is worth over $500MM and everyone who works for him is a quant geek who never makes below $100K when he graduates college.

-Rudey
--Oh hilarious.

I honestly don't know what my IQ is because I don't give enough of a crap to test it. I know that I do well in school and enjoy learning and that seems like satisfaction enough for me without having some number to boost my self esteem and try to make others appear beneath me.

IQ tests may measure something, but that thing isn't true intelligence.

When I was younger my parents refused to allow me to see my IQ score, and now, I'm glad they didn't. I don't think I ever want to know.

Same thing happened to me. In 5th grade after testing they actually told my classmates their scores but called my father in for an interview about mine. I assume it wasn't super low because, him being mean, said he didn't want to tell me to avoid giving me a big head . . I think he was just being mean . . you would have to know him . . lol.

That being said, and since I just blew my own horn . . . I am sure that my subsequent lifestyle has diminished my score by an order of magnitude.

No one is really sure what it measures lol . . because there are different factors. Shrug. All they knew was that much like the SAT's there was a certain correlation between IQ and academic success. Probably your earliest IQ scores like in grade school are the most accurate indicators of "potential". But who knows? Its just something to do.

Well... I think I would have to agree it's only POTENTIAL because I got a VERY nice score on my SATs but I didn't get good grades AT all in high school some people are just better at taking tests...

it's like James said we reward plodders now.. really anyone can get good grades if they work hard enough it has NOTHING to do with how smart you are

Even if you have a challanging major like math, or physics?

To a certain degree i think . . . we have actually triued to have aclasses that buffer the fact that some people can't recall well enough for exams. . so for example: Homework being part of your grade? Attendance? Those are freebies for plodders . . .

Well, chances are it would have been tested for you in elementary school if they thought you were gifted or some such other issue. You were probably just an average student--the people for whom IQ isn't an indicator of much.

For what it's worth, I have no idea what mine is.