Criticism of Verbal Reasoning Tests
Some have criticised verbal reasoning tests due to their lack of precision - many questions arguably having more than one answer. For example, a question which asks: "When will Joe Bloggs retire?" may expect the testee to respond with the answer "Joe Bloggs will retire at 65" based on the following two sentences (taken from a preceding paragraph - the format of most verbal reasoning tests): "Joe Bloggs currently works as a civil servant" and "Those in the civil service generally retire at 65"
However, though the two sentences make it probable that Joe Bloggs will retire at 65, it is still a logical possibility that he will continue to work beyond this point, or that he will retire early and live off savings. As a result, ironically, it is possible to be penalised for having too discerning a critical faculty. Additionally, a number of questions ask testees to decide what the central focus of the preceding paragraph is, however the options provided often afford more than one arguable response. As such, critics suggest that standard IQ tests; or numerical reasoning tests, are preferable due to their precision .
Verbal reasoning suits only certain types of people, and most say they are not intelligence tests, but mind-type tests.
Read more about this topic: Verbal Reasoning
Famous quotes containing the words criticism, verbal, reasoning and/or tests:
“A friend of mine spoke of books that are dedicated like this: “To my wife, by whose helpful criticism ...” and so on. He said the dedication should really read: “To my wife. If it had not been for her continual criticism and persistent nagging doubt as to my ability, this book would have appeared in Harper’s instead of The Hardware Age.””
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“The “text” is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.”
—Leslie Fiedler (b. 1917)
“Reasoning is the pastime of my whole household, and all this reasoning has driven out Reason.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)
“Letters have to pass two tests before they can be classed as good: they must express the personality both of the writer and of the recipient.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)