I came across this chart developed by a Caltech grad student, Virgil Griffith where he built a chart correlating musical preferences (by band or composer) against their SAT scores. Now this isn’t scientific by any means. Even the premise that SAT scores correlate with intelligence isn’t clear, so I don’t think this was meant to be published in the latest medical journals.
But its a fun chart to review and see where you finally end up. For those who aren’t familiar with the SATs, its an American high school leaving test which comprises 2 papers. One on math, the other on english. Its all multiple choice but has various sections testing your mathematical and english skills. You can get a maximum of 800 points on each paper and the highest score you can get is 1600 for both.
Based on the “research”, it appears that those who like Beethoven come out way ahead of those who like any other kind of music. The losers are those who like Lil Wayne and its interesting to see that those who like Rap actually come out ahead of those who like Pop. The spread looks a bit doctored to me. After all, I find it hard to believe that ALL those who like Beethoven had scores that fit within that narrow range. I suppose if taken in fun, this is a useful conversation piece and certainly a social ice breaker!
For those who are wondering where I would fit? I kinda like Maroon 5, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, the Eagles, U2…..classical wise, I prefer Bach over Beethoven……I did my SATs so many years ago I can’t really remember what I got. It was somewat above 1400 I think 🙂
Tong Hsien-Hui
Some Meowsings...... 
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