Scholastic Aptitude Test

Vocabulary

 
The Law of Belief is so powerful in our lives that even if we hold beliefs that are based on totally false information, they have an impact on what happens to us and an impact on our effects.

I’ll give a very good example.

A couple years ago, a young man from a small Midwestern school got straight A’s, straight through high school.

And then wrote the college entrance exam, what are called the SAT test or Scholastic Aptitude Test, for entrance into the state university.

He got his exam results back and a letter from the university a few weeks later. They said he had scored 98 on the SAT test, and was being admitted into the university.

Now the young man did not know what a SAT score was. And when he got a 98 on the SAT score, he was convinced that it meant that he had a 98 IQ.

Now a 98 IQ is a below average IQ, and is about 20 points less than what is necessary for college-level work.

He went off to school and in the entire first semester of college work, he got straight D’s. He either failed or almost failed in every single class he was in.

At the end of his first semester, his counselor called him in, and asked him, “What is the problem? You got straight A’s in high school. The course work you are doing here is only a year advanced than high school work.

Why is it that you are having such difficulty with these courses?”
The student replied, “Well sir, you can’t really blame me because I only have a 98 IQ.”
And the counselor who had his file in front of him said, “Where did you get this idea?”
“Well I got it in my entry letter from the university. It said, ‘I’ve been accepted and I got a 98 on the SAT test.”
“Young man, a 98 on the SAT test is not an IQ rating — it is a percentile rating.”

And the young man did not know what a percentile was. And the counselor explained that a 98 meant that he had scored equal to or better than 98 percent of all the students writing entry exams to colleges in North America that year.

And he was one of the brightest students in the university, if not one of the brightest students in the entire country.

When the young man understood clearly that it wasn’t a 98 IQ, but it was a 98 percentile, he turned around, he went back to his classes and in the next semester, he got straight A’s.

This was reported in Psychology Today, and is consistent with hundreds of different experiences people have had.

The single most important application of the Law of Belief is this: if we have self-limiting beliefs, irrespective of whether or not they are based on reality, to the degree to which we believe them, they will become true for us.
 

Questions

1. The Law of Belief is very powerful. True or false?

2. Describe the young man in high school.

3. What did he do at the end of his high school?

4. Did he do well in his first year at university?

5. What did he say to the university counselor?

6. Was there a misunderstanding?

7. What happened in the end?

8. What is the moral, lesson, or theme of the story?
 
 
A. I know students who did well in school, but became average or didn’t do well in university. Yes or no? Do you know students who were mediocre or average in school, but became excellent students at university?

B. Can you think of similar examples to that of the student in the text?

C. What is the final or university entrance exam like? Is it very, very difficult?

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