3 students are discussing a topic they studied in class. Speaker 1 So what did you think about the lecture we had yesterday on intelligence tests? Speaker 2 Interesting. She said they Started in France in 1905 when they passed a law that all kids had to go to school and teachers were trying to identify the ones that might need special help. Later they were modified for teens and adults. Speaker 3 Yeah, but what about the theory underlying intelligence tests? How can a test really measure intelligence? I think the results are affected by your emotions like, Uh, whether you're one of those people that likes tests or you feel really nervous about the result. I think they're based on what you can do in certain situations, not really how smart you are. Speaker 1 You're right. Didn't the professor say that researchers came up with a number of tasks that use different skills they thought would be useful for success in school, such as good memory, reasoning skills and verbal comprehension, and then graded them according to age? So like for example a 5 year old should remember a list of 3 things and a 7 year old should be able to remember 5. So like you said, it's more about what you can do, not how smart you are. Speaker 3 Well, intelligence tests never made much sense to me. What exactly are we measuring anyway? Just because you can remember a bunch of things on a list doesn't mean you'll have success in your life, or even in your job. So what's the point of taking an intelligence test? And what about the kids who speak different languages at home? They might not do well on the test, not because they can't remember 5 things, but because they might not know the words. Or maybe the child didn't get a good breakfast that morning or wasn't feeling well, like had a cold or something. Then they might not do so well and it would really have nothing to do with intelligence. Speaker 2 I agree I took some tests in school when I felt really sick and didn't do very well, but I'm getting a's in university. And I have a friend who is really smart when it comes to understanding people and what they're thinking and what they want. But he doesn't like sitting in a classroom and never did very well on those tests. Now he's making a fortune managing his own company. So if he had believed those tests, he might never have been successful. Speaker 1 Well, I actually think that intelligence tests are quite useful as long as teachers or employers don't make decisions just based on the results of the one Test. Anyway, I think they shouldn't be called intelligence tests. They should be called abilities tests or something like that, because they sort of assess abilities rather than intelligence, like the ability of complex thinking, reasoning and learning, or the skill of making judgements. They could help to assess Academic abilities or a person 's ability to handle particular skills for a particular job. Speaker 3 That's a brilliant idea. Let's tell the professor about that. I bet we'll all get as in the class.