The myth that most students can't write begins with the very first college writing exams, then really emerges when headline news begin reporting standardized test results. Consequences include that test results define writing and writing failure, and we accept test-based claims and criteria. We make limited standards the same thing as excellent standards, and we think about writing in terms of control rather than practice. Closer to the truth is that early exam reports sometimes lied, errors are changing but not increasing, and tests and scoring criteria change. Standardized exam writing is limited, but most students write across a broad writing continuum when they are not writing standardized exams.

Civil dispute resolution does not only occur through ADR and mainstream courts; there is also a significant volume of civil litigation heard by specialist courts and tribunals that have been created by statutes with specific and limited jurisdictions. Many specialist areas of law are dealt with by “super tribunals” run by every state and territory except Tasmania, which is committed to introducing a super tribunal in 2021. The super tribunals are commonly described as: ACAT (ACT), NCAT (NSW), NTCAT (NT), QCAT (Qld), SACAT (SA), SAT (WA) and VCAT (Vic). The state-based super tribunals are relatively recent and each deal with a number of different types of disputes which were previously dealt with by smaller, more specialised tribunals.1 Many statutory tribunals resolve disputes relating to administrative decisions by government, and government-related institutions and organisations. However, there is a wide variation in the jurisdiction of these super tribunals, with some replacing only a portion of statutory tribunals and others comprehensively replacing statutory tribunals. In addition, in some jurisdictions, the super tribunal can hear all civil disputes up to a certain threshold and effectively acts as a small claims court.

This chapter examines the reciprocal relation between intelligence and achievement, particularly within academic domains such as verbal ability and mathematical ability. In particular, the chapter examines the specific knowledge needed for successful performance on tests of verbal ability that focus on decoding or reading comprehension, and tests of mathematical ability that focus on solving arithmetic computation problems or arithmetic word problems.