"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 19:48:46 -0400, "Jeff Harper"
calmly ranted:
Uh huh. And you think he has the intelligence appropriate for the
most
powerful position in the world? Number 1 out of 6 billion people.
Do you really?
Bush scored a 1206 on his SAT. Now, I didn't take the SAT at all (the
ACT
was all the was required for my BigTen school), but after a quick look
at
collegeboard.com puts 1200 in the 78th percentile of all scores. In
addition, the SAT is a self-selected test, meaning that it's taken
mostly
by
people on their way to college (i.e. the population is already skewed
to
more intelligent people to begin with). Meaning that on the basis of
his
SAT score, Bush is probably in the, oh, 80-85th percentile of
intelligence.
Provide a link (to a legit source) confirming that was Bush's score.
I find it hard to believe.
And show me where 6 extra points out of 1200 = 7 percentile.
6/1200 = 0.005 x 0.78 = 0.0039 + 0.78 = ~78.4 percentile
(I know, invalid numbers/unknown qty in sample, but still...)
OK, Larry, you got me because I don't have the slightest idea what you're
talking about with the 7 percentile stuff. If you're wondering how I got
from 78th to 85th percentile, why not try actually reading (and
understanding) what I wrote. I didn't figure I'd have to go into this level
of detail, but I guess I do. First, I have to admit to being wrong about
one thing. I was extrapolating Bush's SAT score to current scores and using
that as a basis to get to the 78th percentile number. After further review,
according to at UP story at
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...4-074349-3947r, Bush's 1206
equates to a 1280 today, which would put him in the 88th percentile today.
What percentile a 1206 put you in 30 some odd years ago, I don't know. The
part that you apparently just skipped over is that I was attempting to
guestimate Bush's intelligence in the overall population, not just in the
population of SAT test-takers. It's a reasonable assumption that those
taking the SAT are already smarter than average since these are the folk
generally headed for college. So, the population of SAT takers is already
skewed on the smarter side of the general population. Thus, being in the
78th percentile of the SAT taking population would put you in some higher
percentage of the general population. My guess was in the 80-85th
percentile. So, your calculation has nothing to do with what I was talking
about, other than giving the President another half-percentile that I wasn't
going to bother with. However, if you were actually going to do this
calculation, it would be better to do it this way. First, the data on SAT
scores/percentiles can be found at
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_dow...f/table_3b.pdf
SAT Percentile
1200 78
1210 80
Interpolating between 1200 and 1210 for 1206 gives
1200 + (80-78)/(1210-1200)*(1206-1200) = 79.2
However, we now know that the 1206 score converts to a score today of 1280,
which needs no intepolation since it's listed on the table at 88th
percentile.
todd