“Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.” – Edward de Bono

Each year at this time, the pressure cranks up in the race for school and university places, as SATS and A-levels prepare to feed another raft of league tables. As these help determine our standing on the world stage, through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), our obsession with measuring children takes centre stage.

Confident in our system of public examinations, that is broadly designed to separate those more ‘intelligent’ from the less ‘intelligent’, we can feel content that we are filtering out our most able for higher education and all the opportunities that entails. Sounds simple enough, if it was really that easy.

The problem lies with the word intelligence. The common definition, that of possessing ‘a quickness of understanding and an ability to apply knowledge and skills to a high level’ – should give us pause to ask how well equipped our current examination system is to deliver?

Many ‘intelligent’ students, so identified by the data emanating from various intelligence tests (which incidentally too often reinforce teacher expectations), are frustrated by papers that trot out the same questions in a different garb. These allow for little or no original thought and even actively discourage creative thinking and intelligent responses.

Simply stated, measuring intelligence through examination is, inevitably, as limited as the examination itself. Whilst it might prove a reasonable sieve – perhaps even the best we can provide – it will not identify many of those we instinctively know to be intelligent.

Exam time -tension,no games – students burry themselves admist books- no time for book or sleep.Students showed be given practical situations where they use their minds and brains without it is for examination purpose ,unconscious efforts bring more fruit. The tension and sleepless nights- cause health problems – does not allow students to appear for the examination in a perfect state of mind .Written examination practice laid down and followed over the years – time of the year of the stress, parents compare the students without understanding their real  potential .THANK YOU