Intelligence

If you didn’t score well on your placement tests, it may mean you don’t have the skills to be a rocket engineer, but you might be a gifted artist.

There are many types of intelligence, and placement tests emphasize on certain types of reasoning and problem-solving, such as with math and language.  Of course, these tests don’t fully measure ones’ thinking potential, such as the case of Richard Feynman, a noteworthy theoretical physicist , who “only” scored 125 on his IQ test.

IQ and placement tests may also not measure how good an artist you are, or how skilled a golfer you are.  Some people can swerve their taxis like magic, whereas others are fine plumbers.

If gorillas can communicate using sign language, elephants paint relatively well, Australian cattle dogs drive cows over long distances, then you can tell your mom that she has the sheer ability to combine words to form language.  She will probably respond by asking: “Huh, what do you mean sweetie?”, then you can tell her, “That’s true, and I hope you are doing well too!”