Rethinking Intelligence: Are Grades Enough
Let me say it loud—it’s an absolute “No.” Grades are designed to assess students' understanding of specific subjects, usually based on exams, assignments, and other evaluations. However, they primarily measure students' ability to memorize information and perform well under test conditions. While these skills are important, they represent only a narrow slice of what we traditionally consider “intelligence.”
Talking about intelligence, many factors are to be considered beyond merely the grades. Grades and intelligence are two very different things.
As the saying goes, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Unfortunately, what is more prevalent in our society is that we have been evaluating people based more specifically on standardized grades. But grades do not necessarily reflect abilities. There are students who, despite understanding well what is covered in the class, can’t reproduce it just because they suffer from test anxiety. When stressed or anxious, even if your brain wants to perform a task in a certain manner, you might underperform because your focus gets divided into complex or numerous other activities or thoughts! As a teacher, one should encourage students to understand the importance of comprehension rather than just memorizing the material. Mugging up and reproducing the same is like playing a game of Simon.
We should understand that we are humans and not just numbers on a page, possessing innumerable and diverse types of strengths and abilities, whereas grades cover only some of them. Intelligence is a multifaceted concept that includes creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence, and social abilities—none of which can be fully captured by a letter or a number on a report card. For instance, a student who excels in storytelling or art may struggle with mathematics. Does this mean they are less intelligent? Certainly not. It simply means their intelligence expresses itself differently.
According to psychologist Howard Gardner, intelligence is not a single entity but an envelope of different types of intelligence such as Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic—each with its own magic and prowess. But if they are measured against unrelated skill sets, they might all appear suboptimal when graded on basic terms.
So, the bottom line is:
Intelligence cannot be measured by just one system. Just as a simple grade system can’t estimate one’s intelligence, similarly, intelligence doesn’t dictate one’s grades either.