Gardner indicates that traditional ideas of intelligence all revolve around a narrow scope of linguistic and arithmetical ability, which are what intelligence tests are best able to directly predict. However, while actual classroom performance or academic success can be predicted with such tests, activities outside of school are much more difficult to touch upon.
他指出，智力測驗的成績最能直接預測的，其實是課堂上的表現或學術上的成就，至於學術以外的生活領域便很難觸及。