What grades and achievement tests measure.
Intelligence quotient (IQ), grades, and scores on achievement tests are widely used as measures of cognition, but the correlations among them are far from perfect. This paper uses a variety of datasets to show that personality and IQ predict grades and scores on achievement tests. Personality is relatively more important in predicting grades than scores on achievement tests. IQ is relatively more important in predicting scores on achievement tests. Personality is generally more predictive than IQ on a variety of important life outcomes. Both grades and achievement tests are substantially better predictors of important life outcomes than IQ. The reason is that both capture personality traits that have independent predictive power beyond that of IQ.
Department of Economics, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Lex
L
Borghans
Department of Economics, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Bart H H
BH
Golsteyn
Department of Economics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; jjh@uchicago.edu.|The American Bar Foundation, Chicago, IL 60611.
James J
JJ
Heckman
Department of Economics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.
John Eric
JE
Humphries
D000124:Achievement; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment
IQ; achievement tests; grades; personality traits