Do grades reflect pupil’s intelligence?

Do grades reflect pupil’s intelligence?

Intelligence is the ability to learn and comprehend given information or the capacity to deal with new or difficult situations.

An argument for could be that all students have been exposed to the same learning environment therefore; any test would show the different abilities. This is similar to a science experiment where mice and rats are all dealt with in the same manner and the variants in the outcome are measurable. There are many people who will side with these arguments because they themselves have failed in tests and are now looking for excuses.

In education, different intelligences have been identified. These include linguistic, kinaesthetic, auditory, visual, spacial, musical, mathematical, emotional, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Researchers in this field (Howard Gardner) propose that teachers vary their lessons to encompass these abilities in order to improve the grades of the students. So if a student has an aptitude for English and they do poorly in math, are they unintelligent? The present education system assumes that individuals all learn in the same way at the same pace. The present model of assuming is only going to advantage on type of learner. Also, a lot of questions in tests depend greatly on memory. How about this, if a student gets a good grade, how do you know that he/she was not cheating during the test? Is that pupil still considered intelligent? Furthermore, if grades did reflect intelligence, how come Einstein is considered a genius? He did not have good grades and did not get through to university and yet he is considered one of the greatest minds to ever have walked the earth. Last but not least is Van Gogh. He only sold one painting in his lifetime because they were considered ugly and were not appreciated but they are now being sold for fortunes each. Lastly, creativity is hard to test for.

People who don’t know you will assume that bad grades mean you are not smart or disciplined or that you are lazy. Whatever the actual reasons, bad grades will likely reduce your opportunities so we must work hard for good grades even if we are not at ease with the subject.

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