NASHVILLE, Tenn.— Students with extraordinary scores on the SAT at age 12 go on to achieve exceptional life success into their 30s, researchers have found. The research, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, discovered that these students were more or as likely as a comparison group of students identified in their early 20s enrolled in the nation’s top science, engineering and mathematics graduate programs to later receive a medical degree, earn an annual salary of at least $100,000 or secure a tenure-track position in a top-50 ranked institution. Students in both groups were approximately 35 years old at the time of the survey.
“What is most interesting about this research is that, traditionally, early measures of ability were not thought to relate to future creativity,” David Lubinski, a lead author of the study and professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University Peabody College, said. “Our research found that there is in fact a direct relationship.”
“Instruments such as the SAT assess much more than book-learning potential. Assessing exceptional cognitive abilities early uncovers a population with remarkable potential for occupational roles requiring complex information processing and creativity,” the authors wrote. “Never before has a sample of future scientists of this caliber, with nearly equivalent numbers of men and women, been psychologically assessed so comprehensively and tracked” over time.
Lubinski and Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education, Vanderbilt University Peabody College, led the research. Both are investigators in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. Their co-authors were Rose Mary Webb, Appalachian State University, and April Bleske-Recheck, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The 12-year-olds were identified as part of a nationwide “talent search” using the SAT. Students scoring higher than 700 on the mathematical portion of the test or more than 630 on the verbal portion were identified as being in the top one in 10,000 for their age in the United States. The average SAT math and verbal scores for high school juniors and seniors are around 500.
The study tracked 380 of the high-scoring students beginning in the early 1980s. The students were surveyed in 2003-2004 on their education, career, success and life satisfaction. Graduate students who had been enrolled in a top-ranked engineering, mathematics or physical science program in 1992 also took the survey in 2003-2004.
The survey found that members of the SAT group were more likely to earn higher salaries and just as likely to hold a tenure-track position in a top research university than the graduate student group, and were 50 times more likely than the general population to earn doctorates.
“It is impressive to find members of both groups achieving comparable top tenure-track positions,” Benbow said. “Whereas this type of success might have been expected of the graduate school group as they were already on an academic track when we identified them, the SAT group was only identified with one very high test score at age 12. At that age, they had not narrowed their career interests in the same way the graduate students had when we began tracking them.”
The SAT group was also marked by earning very high salaries, with a greater percentage of this group than the graduate student group earning more than $250,000 a year. Those in the SAT group in corporate positions appeared to be earning a high salary as a result of their creativity and leadership. Both groups were much more likely than the average American to hold a patent—32.1 percent of the male and 20.9 percent of the female graduate student group held at least one patent as did 17.8 percent of the male and 4.3 percent of the female SAT group. In comparison, 1 percent of the overall U.S. adult population holds at least one patent.
Both groups were less likely to have children than the average American in their age group—approximately 60-70 percent of both groups were childless. The average proportion of childless individuals for their age group is between 20-25 percent.
Both groups reported high overall life satisfaction, including career fulfillment, perceived success and positive relationships with significant others.
The research was part of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, which is tracking over 5,000 gifted adolescents identified between 1972 and 1997 throughout their adult lives.
Psychological Science can be viewed online at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/.
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Ashley Toth, Association of Psychological Science, contributed to this article.
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Media contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu