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Have you actually measured all of those Neuroscience PhDs IQs?

by arijo 7y ago

neural_thing 7y ago
No, but I know their GRE scores, which are a good proxy for IQ. Plus, seeing the kind of math they do on the fly gives you a good idea.
- electricslpnsld 7y ago
  Is there a reference or study for that? I thought GRE scores were mostly a proxy for cramming English vocabulary into your brain (verbal) and for knowledge of basic geometry facts and inferences from them (quantitative).
  - syrrim 7y ago
    Both are proxies for TDTPT: https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stanford-marshmallow-prison-experiment https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stan...
- mlevental 7y ago
  ...standardized tests are terrible proxies for iq
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    Why would you say this? Assessing IQ is the entire purpose of standardized tests, and unsurprisingly it's something they do well.
    - mlevental 7y ago
      because you can prepare for them.
      - saagarjha 7y ago
        Can you not prepare for an IQ test?
      - losvedir 7y ago
        Only to some extent. I've tutored for the SAT and seen some improvement, but you can't get people to perfect scores. I got a perfect score with a bit of practice. Khan academy and the college board say your score can improve on average 115 pts with study, which is not nothing, but is still a long way from 1600 when the average score is ~1000. So when someone says that people treat SAT scores as a proxy for an IQ test, they mean someone with a 1550 likely has a well-above average IQ, and a higher one than someone who got a 1250, who's still probably somewhat above average. [0] https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/160451329150/studying-for-the-sat-for-20-hours-on-khan-academy https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/160451329150/stu...
- BeetleB 7y ago
  Below I talk about the older GRE exams It's not hard to get a perfect score in the quantitative section. You just need to be decent at math, and simply careful and tedious not to make mistakes. It's not hard to get in the 99 percentile of verbal either - just memorize a lot of words, practice, and learn some of the tricks (e.g. for analogy questions, you can eliminate 3 of the 5 choices even if you don't know the meaning of both words presented to you). Now when they had the analytical section (different from the current one - they retired it in about 2004) - that was a bit more challenging. And that was the one that set people in top schools apart. Getting a near perfect score (770-800) in quantitative was the norm for people applying to any of the top 10 grad schools in technical fields. But the analytical section was tougher. I think Caltech had the highest median (about 780). The next highest was Wisconsin with 750. The next highest after that was 720, and the rest of the top 10 were in that vicinity. But they scrapped that section - the only one that was a useful differentiator. Anyway - bottom line is getting good grades in GRE in the old days (and I suspect today as well) is mostly an exercise in memorizing words, and learning test taking strategies - including simple things like if you have to solve an equation and have 5 choices for x - don't bother solving it - just plug each x in to the equation to see which one works. Most people don't do this well because: 1. They cram - spend only 2 months preparing for it. 2. They don't spend time in figuring out efficient test taking strategies. Actually, they don't need time - they just need to read a few books on the topic! I spent over a year preparing for it (only a few minutes a day, and with gaps of weeks at a time). It wasn't hard to get a perfect score in two of the categories and a 99 percentile in the third. And then when I went to grad school, I didn't perform better than those whose score was nowhere near as good.

Have you actually measured all of those Neuroscience PhDs IQs?

by arijo 7y ago

Have you actually measured all of those Neuroscience PhDs IQs?

No, but I know their GRE scores, which are a good proxy for IQ. Plus, seeing the kind of math they do on the fly gives you a good idea.

electricslpnsld 7y ago
Is there a reference or study for that? I thought GRE scores were mostly a proxy for cramming English vocabulary into your brain (verbal) and for knowledge of basic geometry facts and inferences from them (quantitative).
- syrrim 7y ago
  Both are proxies for TDTPT: https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stanford-marshmallow-prison-experiment https://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/post/113360634364/the-stan...
mlevental 7y ago
...standardized tests are terrible proxies for iq
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Why would you say this? Assessing IQ is the entire purpose of standardized tests, and unsurprisingly it's something they do well.
  - mlevental 7y ago
    because you can prepare for them.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Can you not prepare for an IQ test?
    - losvedir 7y ago
      Only to some extent. I've tutored for the SAT and seen some improvement, but you can't get people to perfect scores. I got a perfect score with a bit of practice. Khan academy and the college board say your score can improve on average 115 pts with study, which is not nothing, but is still a long way from 1600 when the average score is ~1000. So when someone says that people treat SAT scores as a proxy for an IQ test, they mean someone with a 1550 likely has a well-above average IQ, and a higher one than someone who got a 1250, who's still probably somewhat above average. [0] https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/160451329150/studying-for-the-sat-for-20-hours-on-khan-academy https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/160451329150/stu...
BeetleB 7y ago
Below I talk about the older GRE exams It's not hard to get a perfect score in the quantitative section. You just need to be decent at math, and simply careful and tedious not to make mistakes. It's not hard to get in the 99 percentile of verbal either - just memorize a lot of words, practice, and learn some of the tricks (e.g. for analogy questions, you can eliminate 3 of the 5 choices even if you don't know the meaning of both words presented to you). Now when they had the analytical section (different from the current one - they retired it in about 2004) - that was a bit more challenging. And that was the one that set people in top schools apart. Getting a near perfect score (770-800) in quantitative was the norm for people applying to any of the top 10 grad schools in technical fields. But the analytical section was tougher. I think Caltech had the highest median (about 780). The next highest was Wisconsin with 750. The next highest after that was 720, and the rest of the top 10 were in that vicinity. But they scrapped that section - the only one that was a useful differentiator. Anyway - bottom line is getting good grades in GRE in the old days (and I suspect today as well) is mostly an exercise in memorizing words, and learning test taking strategies - including simple things like if you have to solve an equation and have 5 choices for x - don't bother solving it - just plug each x in to the equation to see which one works. Most people don't do this well because: 1. They cram - spend only 2 months preparing for it. 2. They don't spend time in figuring out efficient test taking strategies. Actually, they don't need time - they just need to read a few books on the topic! I spent over a year preparing for it (only a few minutes a day, and with gaps of weeks at a time). It wasn't hard to get a perfect score in two of the categories and a 99 percentile in the third. And then when I went to grad school, I didn't perform better than those whose score was nowhere near as good.