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Academic achievement at school or university is the only true measure of a person’s intelligence. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
It is an irrefutable fact that education plays an important role in personal development and success in life. However, I would argue that educational results should not be the sole means of measuring students’ intelligence. Two of the primary reasons for this are as follows.
Firstly, the achievements in school or college do not always correctly reflect a learner’s real academic intelligence. It is well-known that a relatively large proportion of students from all over the world tend to cheat in examinations in order to receive higher marks than they could do by themselves. Moreover, test results are influenced by not only the intelligence of the testers but also other crucial factors, both physically and mentally. A brilliant high-school student, for example, may happen to fail an ordinary exam if he suffers from an unexpected severe headache or an upcoming stressful event. These problems prevent his brain from working properly and thus lead to poor results.
Secondly and more importantly, academic intelligence can not exclusively determine the term “intelligence” in general. That is to say, a person is judged to be smart mostly on his sensibility, creativity as well as his presence of mind in real life rather than his accomplishments at school. For instance, a teenage girl who is able to react quickly towards a criminal gang and protect herself from being hurt is considered intelligent, regardless of her grades in class. Many good students, on the other hand, can do almost nothing but panic in reply to such difficult situations.
In summary, for the reasons stated above I reaffirm my position that academic accomplishment is just one of many measures of a person’s intelligence. It is highly recommended that a more comprehensive education system which encourages students’ practical skills should be put into consideration, so that their intelligence can be fully developed.