There is no Gene for the Human Spirit.

Welcome to the world of intelligence testing.  The SAT, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT standardized exams are Pseudo-IQ tests.  They purport to assess and quantify your raw intelligence into a comparable score.

Early last century, during World War I, American psychologists developed and validated tests that would soon become the precursors to common IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests such as the Stanford-Binet, WAIS (Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale), and WISC (Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children).  Psychologists, including Dr. Robert M. Yerkes used their newly created Army Alpha and Beta tests to identify and classify individuals in terms of their intelligence level.  Their goal: to design tests that would allow the army to recruit and promote the “right” individuals.

Intelligence in general is understood simply as two basic phenomena.  One, the ability to think quickly or dynamic thought, and two, the ability to learn rapidly and acquire new information at an accelerated pace.  This should not be thought of as “educated."  Education, on the other hand, is the knowledge accumulated through study and life experiences over a period of time.  The SAT, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT do not assess your education, as they are not content tests.  The ACT and CBEST however are a combination of content-level (i.e., specific knowledge of a particular subject) and intelligence tests.

We support these tests.  Intelligence testing is a fixture of our society, and will continue on into new forms within our lifetimes.  The test preparation industry will cease to exist when public acceptance comes in the form of genetic testing.

Why all of the fuss about IQ?  Well, there is no other attribute that has as much predictive validity as cognitive ability.  Your IQ accounts for roughly 30% of the overall variance of your performance on any given task.  In other words, knowing an individual's IQ can provide strong explanatory power when evaluating them for future scholarly work.

 

Click here to view American Mensa's standardized test equivalency scores to an IQ of 130.  An IQ of 130 on the WAIS is considered by most as the threshold of giftedness, or in other words, an individual with an IQ above 98% of the United States population.

These Tests are not without misuse or bias.

University standardized testing comes with the same bias and pitfalls of IQ testing.  One major problem is the tests' biased results within particular ethnic groups.  Another is that socioeconomic status is a major influence on intelligence tests scores.  In addition, the elitism of IQ should not go unnoticed as many prestigious private companies ask for students' test scores when they apply for a position.

 

We believe that standardized testing does not account for the most significant aspect of human performance.

 

The Human Spirit.

 

Your drive, your desire, guts, independence, heart, tenacity, the ability to survive, thrive, and succeed under adverse conditions - The Human Spirit.

 

The Human Spirit affords us the opportunity to transcend our genetic limitations, and move beyond these  tests and their absolutes.  At Sherwood Test Prep, we give students the tools necessary to compete and to excel.

 

Sherwood Tools for the Human Spirit.

 

Practice + Techniques + Structure + Psychology = The Hallmarks of the Sherwood Approach.  Sherwood Test Prep is founded upon the fundamentals.  We are novel, original, and are classically trained in psychometric theory (test construction and development) and university instruction.

 

We have developed and tested our six week courses for a number of standardized tests.  We utilize high-level instructors to teach our rigorous courses.  Many are professors and Ph.D. candidates at your local colleges/universities.  We have a solid game plan that includes proprietary, exclusive techniques and plans of attack.  We hold our students accountable and provide them the structure of what to do, when to do it, and how to it.  We integrate psychology throughout the course.  We know that your mental mindset is incredibly important to your overall test-taking performance.

 

Our approach results in the motivation and drive to improve on tests that purport to measure something that we cannot change: our genes.

 

Sherwood Test Prep.

 

You'll notice we're different.  We care.  We're real.  We want to help others.  Please learn more about our competitive advantages and our views on test preparation.