IQ and School Averages...Do they Correlate?

Age - Category Junior
Division - Biological Science
Students - Ashley Patel
Mentor Information - No mentors

IQ and School Averages.Do They Correlate?

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to find out if there is a correlation between school averages and IQ test results. It will also test if IQ tests are a good indicator of one's knowledge (assuming that school averages are).

Hypothesis

It is predicted that if school grades are a good indicator of intelligence, and IQ is not, then a relationship will not be found between these scores. This is believed because many schools have stop administering IQ tests for various reasons, such as they don't always come out accurate and that many IQ tests test spatial intelligence rather than the subject's knowledge of other topic.

To ensure a fair test, the following precautions will be taken. All of the subjects will be placed in a quiet room, so there will not be any distractions during the test. There will be an equal amount of space between each subject This will ensure that all answers are independently determined. Also, all of the subjects will be given the same test, with the same amount of time to complete it.

Method

First, 15 subjects were chosen. Get a record of the subjects. school mark from the most recent term, and record it. Next, the IQ test was administered to the subjects, using a computer. They were each given 20 minutes to complete the examination. After the 20 minutes was up the subjects entered their e-mail addresses and were given the results. Then, the results were recorded.

Results

* see graphs and charts at the fair.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that there is not a direct correlation between a persons. IQ and their school averages, as was predicted. The hypothesis was correct. It was found that there was a weak, positive correlation. Although there wasn't a strong correlation between IQ and school averages, it was found that there was a strong, positive correlation between IQ and the amount of time used to take the test. If the subject took a longer amount of time to complete the test, then their IQs were generally higher.

If this experiment were to be repeated a hand written IQ test that could be marked by professionals would be used. Also, marks from the subjects. last terms (end of year) would be used so that it would give a better indication of their overall intelligence and skill level.

A question that this experiment led to is "Is the correlation for IQ scores and marks similar for both sexes?" This could be a future experiment, but could not be tested with the given data.

It can be concluded that IQ tests do not measure the same skills as school grades. Also, when applying for a job at a major company, IQ or grades are often taken into account. This experiment shows how one's intelligence level should not largely be judged on one's IQ or school marks alone.