Wednesday July 18, 2009 USA Today wrote “The Educational Testing Service launched an on-line system called the “Personal Potential Index” that lets supervisors and professors evaluate grad school applicants on six qualities that can’t be measured by standardized admission tests: knowledge/creativity, communication skills, teamwork, resilience, planning/organization and ethics/integrity. Studies have shown these qualities are associated with success in either higher education or the workplace.”

I say yeah! As I have quoted Albert Einstein before ” “What if we change the yardstick?”. Personally, I have never been very good at standardized tests. I took the GRE for grad school and did okay. Thanks to a Cleveland State University professor who knew me and my capabilities I got into the program. For sure, the GRE was no predicator of my successfully completing my M.S. in Public Administration with a 3.8 GPA.

How do we measure ourselves and one another?  The Bible says “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  An assistant high school principal told my brother Tobey, “guys like you and your brother end up in the gutter.”  He sure didn’t know our heart. Tobey got a masters degree in Public Administration, worked for the city of Long Beach, then as a technical writer and finally as an elementary school teacher.  

The outward measurement and high GPA didn’t accurately predict the future success of one young lady at Cal State Long Beach. This student was literally a 4.0 in every subject including her accounting major. “I am nervous about taking the CPA exam,” she said to me. I’m thinking, huh? Here is this bright, attractive young lady who will soon start a job with a major CPA firm in downtown Los Angeles worried about taking another test. “You have a 4.0 in all your subjects. What are you worried about?” I asked. “Oh, I only studied to pass the tests,” she said.

While she learned how to take tests, I  had learned how to learn.  Book smart doesn’t mean life smart.