4. Discussion
4.1. Summary of findings
The SAT is based on a conventional psychometric
notion of cognitive skills. Based on this notion, it has
had substantial success in predicting college performance.
But perhaps the time has come to move beyond
conventional theories of cognitive skills. Based on
multiple regression analyses, for our sample, the
triarchic measures alone approximately double the
predicted amount of variance in college GPA when
compared with the SAT alone (comparative R2 values of
.199 to .098, respectively). Moreover, the triarchic
measures predict an additional 8.9% of college GPA
beyond the initial 15.6% contributed by the SAT and
high school GPA. These findings, combined with the
substantial reduction of between-ethnicity differences,
make a compelling case for furthering the study of the
measurement of analytical, creative, and practical skills
for predicting success in college.