Now, I know what you all may be thinking, “what does this have to do with ACT prep?” But slow your roll there, I think I may have something important to tell all of you right now: intelligence is just an illusion. No more important is your mental or physical strength than intelligence. There is never going to be created a test, in which your level of intelligence is tested, at least properly. There is only training, brain chemistry, physical well being, and luck that will help you on test day. So if you’re like me and have thought about how dumb you are for the past lifetime, live a little. Take some time during your preparation to relax, do yoga. Heck! Get outside and go fishing. And if you’re also like me, I have a message for you: “don’t sell yourself short and start your practice now!” Don’t wait to start it later, because we both know you won’t. Trust me, internet dwellers are the worst procrastinators. For many of you this is your final shot on this test. Whether this is your first time or 8th time taking this exam, you have the opportunity to achieve greatness. Whether you want to break 20 or want to break 30! Your goals should never be stopped by one bad score, or many bad scores. I have a quote I wrote down that I look at from time to time, and it has definitely helped as I’ve traversed this test anxiety path as you have, it’s a bit crude, but hey! What can you expect from a moody teen? “Remember, this is one test. What university you end up at doesn’t matter, will never matter. The people you know will never care. After High School, you will never see your smart ass “friends” again. Only focus on trying your best! People who do good on the ACT are not smarter than you. They just are good at pacing during a multiple choice test." This is how the college admissions should take this test, and they shouldn’t weight it as heavily as they do. In most cases, college admissions is just an arbitrary test to gain access to something you can get anywhere. Degrees are nothing to sneeze at, but the college you go to is meaningless. I know you may have pressure from family and friends to get into that one college, but why live someone else’s dream? Think for yourself and don’t think that one test will make or break your admission to a college. And yes, I do believe intelligence is a creation, not natural, nor proven. No scale tells a smart person from a dumb one. Intelligence is an idea. Even so a number should never define intelligence. The proof is in the work you do. If you believe that you are good at math, due to numerous signs that have indicated you are, then you are.
Good luck,
Because, without a doubt, you’ll need it.
Or will you?
I agree with so much of what you post-- except your basic premise.
Nope, I can’t agree that intelligence is an illusion. I do think it’s hard to pin down, but I think most of us can recognize it when we see it, and can recognize when it’s absent.
And you can believe all you want. But if you consistently have difficulty understanding math concepts, or putting those math concepts into practice, then you are not “good at math”-- regardless of what you believe.
As to most of the rest of your post, I agree. It’s very difficult to test intelligence. So don’t for a moment think that that’s what the SAT or the ACT or your GPA scores represent. I’ve taught any number of very intelligent kids over the years who didn’t test well, or who were going through some very rough times and whose scores represented those difficulties.
Basically, tests reveal how capable you were of doing well on that test. A history of successful test taking pretty much indicates that you’re good at taking tests.
Each rejection my daughter got last year made her feel dumb and “not good enough.” But her decision to rebound after a brief pity party, to go out and find the college that will be perfect for her, was (to me at least) a sign of both her intelligence and her resilience. She has a classmate who was rejected from a number of schools and simply gave up. That classmate will be attending community college-- NOT because she’s not intelligent, NOT because it’s the wise economic choice, NOT because of anything except a lack of that resilience.
The reality is that colleges want to accept kids who test well. So you’ll want to do well on those exams, and you’ll want the best GPA you can put together. But, for the most part, that’s already a done deal for most kids on this site. So what you’ll also want to do is to find a list of schools that suit you. Not the you you believe you are, or the you you want to be, but the you that is represented by those test scores and GPA. It’s out there; there are 3,000 colleges in this country. But you may have to do some searching to find it. You’ll need to be open minded, and not be picky. You may have to let go of the idea of a “dream school”-- it can cause too many kids to ignore a wonderful option because of one or two items on a checklist that will turn out to be unimportant when you really see what college is about.
And you need to believe in yourself, and in your ability to “bloom where you’re planted.”
And I’ll add my wishes for good luck.
I said numerous signs you are good at math, not just if you believe you are. I can believe I am the greatest runner ever, but that doesn’t make it true. Numerous signs as in you get the material. My goal of this message is to encourage everyone to achieve greatness in their testing journeys. And possibly help myself and those who are very stressed out right now find hope in my words. Believe what you want but my basic premise is opinion, it is not a fact.
Ouch.
Have a good day.
Let’s try again, shall we?
I believe that intelligence is real. It’s a trait that some people have in greater supply than other people. It’s real, it’s not an illusion as you state. So I can say with absolute certainty that Albert Einstein had more intelligence than I have.
That said, it’s not what’s tested on the ACT or the SAT. They make no pretense towards testing intelligence. At best, they used to claim they tested “aptitude”-- but they changed the name of the SAT away from that years ago.
So I disagree with your premise. I do not think “intelligence is an illusion.” I think it’s real. It may be hard to quantify aside from IQ tests, but it’s real.
Most of the rest of your post I agree with. I think that too many kids think that a particular college is the only place that is right for them, or that will bring them to the path they want to be on. And, as a mom and a high school teacher, I can say with many years experience that that’s a false assumption for the overwhelming number of kids. Most kids are perfectly capable of “blooming where they’re planted”-- of finding happiness and success and a great education at whichever school they end up attending.
So my advice is for rising seniors is to spend this summer finding schools to apply to-- schools where, first, they have a good chance of being accepted. The whole idea of a list composed of largely reaches makes no sense to me. By definition, you’re setting yourself up to be shot down. I’ve got to tell you: those rejections do a job on your psyche. They make you feel stupid and not good enough. And the problem isn’t the school or the SAT, it’s usually that you simply applied to a school that you weren’t going to get into.
For a typical senior – that may not mean much of the CC community-- I would prefer to see a list that’s match and safety heavy. Find schools that you’re likely to be accepted into. Find schools on that list that you can afford, that have your major and that you’ll be happy attending.
Attending a school that was a safety is not a bad thing. And applying to, and being accepted to those safeties and matches early in the fall means that you know you have schools you love by December or January. You would be amazed at the difference that makes in your senior year. It means you can enjoy those last months and days of high school, enjoy your coursework and your friends and your activities instead of stressing about college.
Again-- my advice and my opinions, based on my experience. Your mileage may vary.
The truth is that you can be highly intelligent (yes, intelligence is real,) but do poorly on standardized tests, especially the ACT and SAT. I tutor both tests. They are artificial in the extreme. They aren’t IQ tests. I fully believe that many kids shouldn’t bother trying to take them and just apply test-optional. THAT would save many kids a lot of stress. There are many T-O colleges now, thank goodness.
I appreciate your general message, and kids should not judge themselves by how they do on a test. But there’s no question that some people are more intelligent than others. Generally, intelligent kids tend to perfrom much better in these tests, but so much of it has to do with test preparation. I have seen some very impressive scores produced by kids I don’t regard as being particularly book-smart, but hard work goes a very long way in how well a student can do on a standardized test. A kid who works really hard can get good test scores. Intelligence and a strong work ethic are not necessarily the same thing. I would argue that the latter is more important to general success in life than the former.
@GreatKite23 I appreciate that you are trying to uplift and motivate your fellow teens during this stressful time. That is very kind of you. And, I agree with several of your points.
- Students should not procrastinate and should study for these tests. Test scores can change dramatically with preparation.
- Students should try to also enjoy their lives during this process as it is very stressful.
- After this admissions process no one cares what your score was.
- Where you go to college does not define you. It does not guarantee or prevent success.
Here’s where we diverge:
- Intelligence is real. (However, these tests are not intelligence tests. These tests are assessments of academic achievement which is heavily influenced by many factors including preparation, opportunity and environment.)
- Intelligence is not one-dimensional. There are many types of intelligence: emotional intelligence, social intelligence, musical intelligence, verbal intelligence, artistic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence...etc. etc.
But you are correct. A SAT or ACT test score is not the measure of intelligence. As @Lindagaf stated, there are test-optional colleges for students who do not feel their test scores meet their academic abilities. And there are many pathways to a successful life, and many colleges to help one achieve their goals.
Good luck and take a deep breath. It will be behind you soon enough.
Intelligence to me is a socially created thing as in a belief system. It is not a fact, just an opinion. It is completely subjective on a scale. Everyone can say they are intelligent, but really was they are saying is they are skillful in thought about different topics. Intelligence is an idea, and therefore an illusion. This is my premise, don’t think, I don’t know when people are intelligent. I know when people are smart or dumb as I judgementally decide that with my own biases. But what I am staying is testing intelligence is very much hard to do, the scale of intelligence is imaginary, and the idea of intelligence is made up. The idea of this post is to simply put out there that everyone can be intelligent, some perhaps more limited by learning disabilities or whatever the case may be, people can learn. And people will learn with time that intelligence is just a word in which we place a lot of importantance in. When what we should be focusing on are individual strengths. Writing skills are no more important than math skills, and science isn’t anymore important than music. These skills are important in certain areas yes, but shouldn’t we all appreciate the idea of intelligence in certain areas? I love the fact that you all have opinions, being opinionated is a sign of social intelligence. But please don’t twist my words and take them with a grain of salt. My general premise is that intelligence is an idea or illusion. This is all believe it or not.
Thank you for the good luck, with the ACT i’ll need it. Intelligence to me is a socially created thing as in a belief system. It is not a fact, just an opinion. It is completely subjective on a scale. Everyone can say they are intelligent, but really was they are saying is they are skillful in thought about different topics. Intelligence is an idea, and therefore an illusion. This is my premise, don’t think, I don’t know when people are intelligent. I know when people are smart or dumb as I judgementally decide that with my own biases. But what I am staying is testing intelligence is very much hard to do, the scale of intelligence is imaginary, and the idea of intelligence is made up. The idea of this post is to simply put out there that everyone can be intelligent, some perhaps more limited by learning disabilities or whatever the case may be, people can learn. And people will learn with time that intelligence is just a word in which we place a lot of importantance in. When what we should be focusing on are individual strengths. Writing skills are no more important than math skills, and science isn’t anymore important than music. These skills are important in certain areas yes, but shouldn’t we all appreciate the idea of intelligence in certain areas? I love the fact that you all have opinions, being opinionated is a sign of social intelligence. But please don’t twist my words and take them with a grain of salt. My general premise is that intelligence is an idea or illusion. This is all believe it or not.
@Greatkite23, I think we are saying something similar but in very different ways. I don’t feel anyone twisted your words but apologize that my post was construed that way. I value your opinion on the matter as I certainly hope you value mine. Best of luck.