What Grades and Achievement Tests Measure

Lex Borghans, Bart Golsteyn (), James Heckman and John Humphries

No 2016-022, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Intelligence quotient (IQ), grades, and scores on achievement tests are widely used as measures of cognition, yet the correlations among them are far from perfect. This paper uses a variety of data sets 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 of 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.

Keywords: iq; personality traits; grades; achievement tests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-ure
Note: ECI, IP, MIP
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (57)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Borgha ... ades-ach-measure.pdf First version, November, 2016 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: What Grades and Achievement Tests Measure (2016)
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