Some schools heavily rely on IQ testing, whereas others use it as a secondary source of measuring a student's skill level. By relying heavily on IQ tests, a student's non-academic talents may not be tested, and therefore, not provide accurate results of the student's true abilities. For example, a student may not excel at testable subjects, but may have exceptional creativity, emotional or mechanical skills that would not be identified by an IQ test.
Critics argue that IQ tests do not accurately measure the brain's intelligence level because there is no concrete theory for what intelligence actually is. It is claimed that IQ tests measure specific skills that are determined by the creators of IQ tests, rather than intelligence itself.
Students who receive similar scores on an IQ test may have achieved them by being proficient in different areas. For example, one student could have excelled in the mathematical portion of the test, while the other had strong verbal skills. The one-dimensional score that an IQ test offers does not show the different results between students, therefore it is important for the tester to determine what skill subset the student excelled in.
IQ tests have been unable to accurately predict academic success. Greg Machek of Indiana University noted in a 2003 paper titled "The Role of Standardized Intelligence Measures in Testing for Giftedness" that disadvantaged and minority students tend to score lower than other students, and as result are not given the same opportunities to excel in gifted or advanced programs.