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Just wondering, as someone currently preparing for SAT - why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests if they predict IQ? My

Just wondering, as someone currently preparing for SAT - why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests if they predict IQ? My score was pretty mediocre (due to a year of slacking off during COVID) but after some practice I improved it significantly - does that mean my IQ is greatly increasing as well? I know of some very, very clever people who do not perform well, and the opposite too.

dehrmann 5y ago
> why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests I'm going to guess you're gains plateau or you get to a near-perfect score pretty quickly. The gains you're seeing are just familiarity with the test.
- netr0ute 5y ago
  How can some people keep improving year after year on these tests, though? They don't fit into your possible options.
  - dehrmann 5y ago
    Do you mean the same person gets better year over year? They learned and matured as a student.
    - netr0ute 5y ago
      That's what I mean.
      - abecedarius 5y ago
        Do you mean teenagers? I took the SAT at around 12 and at 16, for instance, and scored considerably higher the second time, with no special test prep (just a couple of sample tests from a booklet from the library a few days before that second test). I think that did help a little, but already doing a third one would've been in the region of diminishing returns. The difference really was just the time, and high school classes. I'd be surprised to see this pattern in someone a decade older.
yCombLinks 5y ago
"SAT scores are predictive of IQ" is not the same as saying "if an individual gets a higher SAT score than another person they have a higher IQ than that person". If however you had a group of 100 people that had a fairly higher score, it is very likely they would have a higher mean IQ than a group of 100 people with a lower score. Nor is it the same as saying "the SAT is a perfect IQ test". A perfect IQ test, one that gives an individual the same score every time, and ranks everyone along an unquestioned scale, is likely impossible.

dehrmann 5y ago

> why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests I'm going to guess you're gains plateau or you get to a near-perfect score pretty quickly. The gains you're seeing are just familiarity with the test.

netr0ute 5y ago
How can some people keep improving year after year on these tests, though? They don't fit into your possible options.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  Do you mean the same person gets better year over year? They learned and matured as a student.
  - netr0ute 5y ago
    That's what I mean.
    - abecedarius 5y ago
      Do you mean teenagers? I took the SAT at around 12 and at 16, for instance, and scored considerably higher the second time, with no special test prep (just a couple of sample tests from a booklet from the library a few days before that second test). I think that did help a little, but already doing a third one would've been in the region of diminishing returns. The difference really was just the time, and high school classes. I'd be surprised to see this pattern in someone a decade older.

yCombLinks 5y ago

"SAT scores are predictive of IQ" is not the same as saying "if an individual gets a higher SAT score than another person they have a higher IQ than that person". If however you had a group of 100 people that had a fairly higher score, it is very likely they would have a higher mean IQ than a group of 100 people with a lower score. Nor is it the same as saying "the SAT is a perfect IQ test". A perfect IQ test, one that gives an individual the same score every time, and ranks everyone along an unquestioned scale, is likely impossible.