Tests And Textbook Learning Don’t Make Children Smart Or Successful. Here’s Why

You would think anyone with a high IQ has a guaranteed chance at success. The “smarter” you are at tests, the stronger your prospects - at least, that’s what a textbook-loving, entrance test-obsessed country like India has always believed.

It isn’t that simple, and leading the charge in busting these myths is none other than Mensa, the world’s oldest high IQ society.

Did you know that over 5 million geniuses in India remain undiscovered, and many live in urban slums?

Young minds as brilliant as Apollo astronauts—held back by circumstances that barely allow survival, let alone success. When told about their children’s gift, many parents -burdened with economic realities -wonder, “What gift?”

Mensa and its India chapter, Project Dhruv, is on a mission to discover India’s “uncut diamonds,” offering special scholarships to students who pass their tests, and a chance to transform their lives.

As a part of this larger dream, Mensa India Project Dhruv got in touch with the Indiahikes School of Outdoor Learning (InSOUL) to help expand their scholars’ horizons on an experiential learning trek.

A Himalayan trek designed not only to test, but to inspire.

What We Learnt? Tests and Textbook-Based Learning Are Unreliable Measures Of Success

The InSOUL team learnt a great deal as we planned for the trek and engaged with everyone from Project Dhruv.

One of our key takeaways was on ideas of intelligence and success. 

Reams of research exist on what makes individuals “smart” or “successful.” For the purpose of this piece, we explore two thoughts on why being cerebral isn’t enough.

1 - Having a high IQ is a great start, but it isn’t enough. And it doesn’t make you ready for the world.

David Perkins, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education sums it up perfectly, "A high IQ is like height in a basketball player. It is very important, all other things being equal. But all other things aren't equal. There's a lot more to being a good basketball player than being tall, and there's a lot more to being a good thinker than having a high IQ."

Tests do a great job of measuring skills like logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability, and how much information you can juggle in your head at once.

But they fall short in evaluating the skills that matter for making good decisions in the real world. They can’t tell you if someone is able to critically evaluate information, or resist knee-jerk biases that often lead us down the wrong path.

We rely on rational thinking every day — from making money decisions and choosing career moves, to handling tricky people at home or work. In a world that’s getting more complex by the minute, these skills help us make better decisions.

Tests and textbook learning don’t help or enhance these skills. Opportunities for real-world learning do.

2 - Great minds and thinking need more than IQ, they need strong Social and Emotional Learning and support.

Scholars as part of Mensa India Project Dhruv come with raw intelligence, but IQ isn’t enough. 

Mensa India operates on the conviction that intelligence needs perspective and confidence. It needs nurturing, opportunities, and encouragement. Most of all, intelligence needs a safe space to dream and experiment.

Intelligence also needs unfamiliar environments – unchartered places to apply old knowledge, unlearn, and build new knowledge.

A unidimensional classroom environment or chaotic/comfortable home environments aren’t ideal spaces for raw intelligence to bloom.

Outdoor Learning Aids Students’ Holistic Development

InSOUL believes that everyone needs to step outside the classroom to expand their horizons and gear up for the real world. 

Plus, parents and educators need all the help they can get to raise successful, happy, and well-adjusted children – a need twice as profound for the brilliant Mensa scholars.

InSOUL designed an experiential learning trek as part of this support with immersive activities and reflections to help students explore, stumble, try again, and succeed.

We could sense the fire in their bellies; young people carrying the weight of two generations’ hopes and dreams on their shoulders, eager to make something of themselves. Trekking brought out sides to themselves they didn’t know existed.

“The 5-day trek was more than an adventure, but a deeply transformative experience. What we carry with us as we return home is more than just memories—it’s a sense of inspiration, motivation, and strength that will continue to guide us. We return with a sense of belonging—a home within ourselves, knowing that those who trek together, stay together,” shares Komal Yadav, Vice President, Mensa India Dhruv Chapter.

InSOUL was honoured to join Mensa in their mission to lift young people up - to have played a small part in helping them dream a little bigger, climb a little higher.