Are You Smarter Than You Think?

Claire Gordon, an educational testing expert who has developed assessments for adults and children in the US and UK, builds this Penguin Compass title around a genuinely useful premise: that practical intelligence is far broader than the logical, verbal, and numerical skills measured by standard IQ tests. The 160 self-tests and paired improvement tips cover creativity, intuition, emotional sensitivity, physical ability, and appreciation for the natural world. That's a lot of ground, and the format is consistently practical — each chapter gives you a diagnostic exercise and something you can actually do with the results. Published by Penguin in their mainstream self-help Compass series, it found a real audience. The honest caveat is that the multiple intelligences framework it draws on is scientifically contested, and self-test formats can't replicate rigorous psychometric assessment. Read it for self-reflection rather than definitive measurement.