No memorization will be necessary in the future.

Imagine if the extent your natural intelligence could be determined with a simple scan where you’d have to do nothing at all. What if it became the new standard for college admissions. Deterministic as it may seem, at least we wouldn’t have anymore goddamn vocab flash cards to memorize.

According to Duke University professor Jonathan Wai, writing in Psychology Today, there’s been a study conducted at UC Irvine since 1988, in which test subjects were put through various aptitude tests while conducting brain scans. What they discovered is the smartest patients required less brain power to accomplish a task. Efficiency!

As this study progresses, the research team is slowly figuring out which characteristics separate the brilliant from the dimwitted, though they’re not quite ready to declare their findings a standardized testing killer quite yet.

Haier acknowledges there are a host of social policy and political issues that using a brain scan instead of the SAT raises, but he has faith that society will sort those out. He does, however, point out that a brain image is about one third the cost of a test prep course, which most students enroll in anyway.

Like I said, no more flash cards. [Psychology Today via Business Insider]