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Science: Tests Are a Big Waste of Time

Tests like the SATs and the NFL Combine, in which participants know they are being tested and so apply extra focus, effort and preparation to perform at their fullest, are "spectacularly bad" ways of testing real-world success. Jonah Lehrer, who knows...

Tests like the LSAT and the NFL Combine, in which participants know they are being tested and so apply extra focus, effort and preparation to perform at their fullest, are “spectacularly bad” ways of testing real-world success. Jonah Lehrer, who knows a thing or two about tests and performance, writes in the Wall Street Journal:

…Though the SAT does a decent job of predicting the grades of college freshmen—the test accounts for about 12% of the individual variation in grade point average—it is much less effective at predicting levels of achievement after graduation. Professional academic tests suffer from the same flaw. A study by the University of Michigan Law School, for instance, found that LSAT scores bore virtually no relationship to career success as measured by levels of income, life satisfaction or public service. Even the NFL Combine is a big waste of time. According to a recent study by economists at the University of Louisville, there’s no “consistent statistical relationship” between the results of players at the Combine and subsequent NFL performance. The reason maximal measures are such bad predictors is rooted in what these tests don’t measure. It turns out that many of the most important factors for life success are character traits, such as grit and self-control, and these can’t be measured quickly. Consider grit, which reflects a person’s commitment to a long-term goal. As Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, has demonstrated, levels of grit consistently predict levels of achievement, such as graduation from West Point and success in the National Spelling Bee. The problem, of course, is that students don’t reveal their levels of grit while taking a brief test. Grit can only be assessed by tracking typical performance for an extended period. Do people persevere, even in the face of difficulty? How do they act when no one else is watching? Such traits often matter more than raw talent. We hear about them in letters of recommendation, but hard numbers take priority.

And so our determination to never take another test is cemented once again (just kidding — kids, if you’re reading this, tests are fun, and they’re still okay at predicting success in school, sometimes! Stay in school!).

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.