I asked Raymond why Malay students seldom out-perform on standardized benchmarks. Raymond is confident that IQ is not one of the factors.

He said a key factor is that Malay parents have too many kids and too little spare time outside work (often 1.5 to two jobs). Raymond contrasted the hours he spends with his boys.

Jack He also said affluent families often have full time mom taking care of kids.

My hypothesis — I guess one of the factors is parenting. Malay (or Hipanic..) parents probably think grades are not so important. Their kids are therefore feeling OK below average. My wife is fairly serious about grades.