IQ is not a realistic representation of intelligence. For a better picture, consider instead the twelve qualities that constitute intelligence as it is actually exercised in life. Descriptions of the qualities are in alphabetical order and are adapted from Thomas Ganey’s forthcoming book Teaching the Twelve Qualities of Active Mindpower: Educating Students in Applying Intelligence.

ANALYTICAL. The analytical thinker assesses an idea by mentally unpacking it to take the measure of its parts. It may be a belief of his own he is testing, for example. He considers his reasons for the belief and considers, on the other side, reasons to the contrary. He examines his assumptions. He weighs feelings which might be affecting his judgment—influencing, especially, the credence he gives to his reasons. He considers values. What value or values drive his belief and what value or values oppose it from the other side? Really, this is critical thinking at its core. The analytical power joins other powers of intelligence in this process, which means that the critical thinker, in being analytical, is at the same time perceptive, exact, objective, and logical.

ASSOCIATIVE. Thinking is all about making connections. The brain is an associative organ. The most natural thing about the mind is that it makes connections to form ideas—thinking creatively, thinking critically. The associative thinker takes advantage of this natural inclination of the mind in order to bring its connective power actively into play. He draws relationships, for example, and likewise employs analogies in his thinking. He may rouse associations, ideas, through visualization or by vocalizing his thoughts. He may issue himself a direct mental challenge to stir associations or, in another case, he may resolutely immerse himself in his subject (through reading and other experiences) to generate ideas. In yet another instance, it may be entirely useful for him to relax, daydream, and let associations happen.

ENERGETIC. The power of a mind depends on its energy. No one whose mind lacks energy will be genuinely intelligent, for intelligence is established in action and a mind realizes and exhibits power just to the extent that it is habitually active. To be intelligent is to be actively intelligent. This being so, the intelligent person arranges physical conditions for himself to support sustained mental energy as the challenge requires. The same person, being self-aware, is conscious that energy expresses itself most decidedly in his thinking exactly at the point of effort where anyone else might be inclined to quit thinking. This means he will not “close the case” prematurely; it means, too, that when he faces a mental challenge of any kind, he will act on the premise that he must actively earn his idea. Energy reveals itself in intellectual initiative, also in curiosity.

EXACT. The intelligent person carries into his active mental life a near-mathematical regard for exactness. For him, exactness is a discipline and a habit; he makes a regular practice of thinking through any idea of significance he encounters in order to understand it exactly. Likewise, when originating a particular idea of his own, he refines his concepts and, making distinctions, keeps thoughts separate that do not belong together, that seem alike but are actually different. It involves a respect for definitions, for precise meanings, and a strict dislike of vagueness. Just as important, the exact thinker is careful about framing his thoughts in absolute terms. He is prepared to qualify any of his ideas in the interest of accuracy and truth.

GENUINE. The genuine thinker primarily derives his ideas from within, not from outside—from himself, firsthand, rather than from others. He generally starts with his own reflections; his first resource is his own mind, and when he comes by an idea secondhand, he makes it his own in how he thinks about it. His thoughts speak his being and there is a freshness about them: they register the uniqueness of his own experience. His best thinking, originating within, springs from initiative and grows from effort; and whatever the particular merit of his idea, it is never unearned; his first instinct is never to copy without improving. His creative intelligence earns for itself a certain distinction, and while it may seem to others somehow original, that is only because it is independent, native, genuine.

LOGICAL. The logical person is someone who, in a given situation, reasons from facts or premises to a conclusion that follows from them validly or correctly. Being a logical thinker amounts to more than being logical in a narrow way—entails more than being merely logical, so to speak. The reasoner must possess the developed intellectual character that belongs to the actively intelligent person. Being objective, he takes into his scope all sides of a question; and because he is perceptive, he will (if need be) pinpoint the true issue and reframe the original question to make his thinking more exact. Self-aware, he pays attention to the thrust of his thinking—as to whether it is rightly directed by logic, not inflected toward some purpose—while at the same time he is analytical in considering his reasons, his assumptions, the feelings affecting his thought process, and the values driving it. In full measure, logical reasoning applies all the skills of critical thinking.

MANUCEPTIVE. Someone who is manuceptive takes advantage of opportunities to “think manually.” He enhances his intellectual effectiveness by accomplishing some part of his thinking with the work of hands. A popular author, for example, draws and notates a timeline for the plot of his next mystery. A spry old lady works her daily crossword puzzle. An inventor shapes in clay a model of his current conception. A bright student, having developed his notecards for a research paper, arranges and rearranges them into varying sequences to jump-start his thinking for an outline. All these are instances of “conceiving by hand,” of manual conception—or manuception.

OBJECTIVE. The objective mind sees things from more than one point of view. It is open and takes into account all sides of a situation in making a judgment. It weighs all factors in order to be accurate, in order to be fair. When an objective person forms an idea or belief, he is self-aware, alert to his potential biases. He is open; he puts aside preconceptions. Thinking critically, he realizes that for the sake of objectivity and truth, disconfirmation of his idea can be as useful to him as confirmation of it. That being so, he makes his idea a target for analysis: he is analytical, mentally separating himself from his idea, establishing a distance to test it, becoming its adversary and, thinking in counterexamples, opposing his idea and his own case to ensure he will be thorough in considering alternative views. Required is an act of will, that he keep a strict standard, thinking objectively when others might not. Whether a person is objective determines a lot about his intellectual character.

OPEN. Openness is active, not passive, and involves the presence of will. Self-aware, a person chooses to be open-minded. Such a person is able to keep his thinking tentative when it is necessary; he will set aside preconceptions and examine alternatives. The same person does not mentally reject what seems strange; he welcomes opportunities to assimilate all aspects foreign to his thinking. Readily he entertains points of view opposed to his own and changes his mind when his ongoing belief is shown to be wrong. All this is a pronounced intellectual disposition.

PERCEPTIVE. Perceptiveness is a power both penetrating and imaginative. How so? The perceptive mind is observant and often discerns what others miss; yet also it is imaginative, for it may need to suppose or invent in order to perceive, as when it invents a scenario to explain a mystery. Imagining, supposing, inventing, the perceptive power allies with the associative power of the intellect—the associative power which is eminently creative. An alliance with the associative power again occurs in perception when the mind makes connections in order to spot hidden similarities between things or to perceive patterns where they are not obvious. The perceptive mind is characteristically open and energetic.

RETENTIVE. Memory is the mind’s way of retaining for itself future resources. The intelligent person extends this retentive action beyond the work of memory. Mark Twain, for instance, kept notebooks in which he recorded happenings, ideas, quotations, facts that interested him, and anything that might be of worth to him in his writings. Abraham Lincoln’s retentive tricks are well known—how he jotted reminders and ideas on slips and fragments of paper, or on envelopes or whatever, and stored them in any odd place for retrieval, including his hat. Revealed in the habits of Twain and Lincoln is the quality of intelligence which is best described in the term retentiveness. Nowadays, the stovepipe-hatted President would exercise this power by way of the handheld digital device in his pocket. By a recorder or a pad or a calendar or a file, the consciously retentive person supplements memory in the business of storing for the future. Does he likewise employ mnemonics? Perhaps. But certainly he will record and further record just as needed to retain and recall anything important; he will also save clippings, documents, letters, photos, memorabilia—anything that may satisfy a future need to remember.

SELF-AWARE. The intelligent person is aware of the characteristics of his own mind and how to exploit its nature. He is aware of how his body affects his mind, and with that he knows his own best physical conditions for doing good thinking. Importantly, he knows when to abandon passive or automatic thinking and make his thinking the target of his active attention. Most importantly, he maintains an awareness of his intelligence as a complex habit, which means that he remains conscious of the fact that he must keep to practices, that he must choose to be intelligent, that intelligence is an ongoing choice because the action of his will is crucial to wise thought and action.