Standardized test have been a means measuring student performance. Some important questions that always come up regarding standardized test are what are the tests really measuring? Are they measuring a person’s intelligence? Their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Or just some random quantity of the person’s IQ? When examining the issues around which these tests are given and the content of the tests themselves, it becomes apparent that however useful the tests may be for standardizing a group’s intellectual ability, they are not a good indicator of intelligence. To issue a truly standardized test, the testing environment should be the same for everyone involved. A person’s environment has a great deal to do with their cognitive abilities. Is the light flickering? Is the paint on the walls an unsettling shade? Is the temperature too hot or too cold? Is the chair uncomfortable? Or in the worst case, do they have an illness that day? To test a person’s mind, it is necessary to utilize their body in the process. If everyone’s body is placed in different conditions during the testing, how is it possible to get standardized results across all the subjects? Because of this assumption that everyone will perform equally independent of their environment, intelligence test scores are skewed and cannot be viewed as standardized, and definitely not as an example of a person’s intelligence.A person’s intelligence stems from a variety of traits. Standardized test measure a few of these traits such as reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spatial relations. What about physical intelligence, conversational intelligence, social intelligence, survival intelligence, and the others that go into everyday life? Why are these important traits not figured into intelligence tests? Standardized tests certainly get predictable results where academics are concerned, but they should not be conside...
