To be fair, someone's inability to write a program does not mean that they cannot be a genius. Perhaps your friend has other areas of interest/talent. I would

To be fair, someone's inability to write a program does not mean that they cannot be a genius. Perhaps your friend has other areas of interest/talent. I would say that performance on standardized tests is a test of two things: 1) hard work and preparation and/or 2) Intelligence in the concepts or subjects being tested.