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IQ... Is it relevant? Or even real?
Posted by Rainhat • 24 days ago • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: intelligence, iq, tests
I like puzzles and such, and took some IQ tests when I was younger just for the fun of it. I scored 143 on one and 168 on another. Now, the actual numbers aren't really that important since different tests use different scales, and you can't really compare scores, only percentiles. For example, the high IQ club Mensa International only admits people who score better than 98 % of the population on a standardized IQ test.
Both these results, as well as others that I took, told me that that I'm supposedly in the "well above average" to "quite gifted" range. That's interesting, I thought, and found the tests that a certain high IQ society requires that you score high enough on to become a member. I answered some questions, went with hunches on others, and scored well above the limit for becoming a member. Interesting.
As an experiment, I reset everything and started another one of the tests, this time just randomly picking answers without even reading the questions. I scored "above average". Even more interesting. I started a third test, this time carefully making sure to answer every single question wrong. I scored "average".
This lead me to the conclusion that it seems quite likely that many (if not most) of the IQ tests you find online are nothing but scams. If you score high enough, you're invited to become a member of an exclusive club for smart people - after you pay a membership fee, of course. 
Not a bad cash cow. People like feeling smart and good about themselves.
I've never taken one of those "serious" IQ tests that you do with pen, paper and time limit in a room with a guy who keeps and eye on people and make sure they don't cheat, so I can't really say anything about them, but I'm kinda sceptical about IQ tests actually revealing much about a person's intelligence. I'm quite sure they will tell you very accurately how good you are at answering IQ tests, though...
Anyone ever taken an IQ test? What do you think about them? Do we have any Mensa members here at BC? Or members of any other high IQ club?
User Comments
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I am a registered "ridiculous super genius." I make all other geniuses look like ditch diggers.-
oh wow. somebody is going to hit you with a shovel...
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It's not what you score but what you do with the brain that occupies your skull. -
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Interesting article. I often wondered about Bush myself...
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Certainly they are not just numbers. It depends on how you use it...-
Like how cap size is not related to lactation ability ...
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I thot it was an interesting question, but for a different reason.
The standard IQ tests are puzzle based. While puzzle solving is certainly an indicator of thinking prowess, there is much more to a human that makes him/her tick, and to measure that, is not so simple. -
I imagine most online IQ tests are not real. They gave them in my elementary school for placement, it was a private school.
It is not just the online cash cow the whole testing of IQ's was a bit of a cash cow even from it's inception from the Binet scale forward. -
Her: why Is the world flat??
Geniass: perceptIon..!
Her: what do you mean?
Geniass: Its a known fact that the world appears of the same shape as your IQ...!!!
Her: .... ehh... what...??
Geniass: exactly...!! -
I took a "serious" IQ test (as you put it,) about 12 years ago & scored a 187 (genius.) I'd been considering joining Mensa at the time, but decided against it. -
i'm the exit 24, new jersey chapter lieutenant vice treaurer of "densa" so i think that qualificatiates me to say that low iq or not, other than capitalist letters, being smart is about the dumbest thing a person can get an education in.
(or something stupid like that) -
Hey Rainhat.
I agree that online IQ tests are usu. scams designed to flatter the test-takers into purchasing something. (There are a few on Facebook that fall into that category easily.)
I have two children of high intelligence and agree with the conclusions in the article link Morgantj provided. There are vast differences between innate 'intelligence' and the ability to make sound decisions.
One issue they did not address in that article, however, is risk assessment. I have one child (the higher IQ of my two) who is risk-averse. As a result, the other child enjoys a greater degree of social and academic success. That is a factor that can't be captured in a standardized test.-
I agree.
But what exactly is "intelligence"? The ability to solve problems? A large amount of factual knowledge? The ability to make good decisions in unexpected situations? Kinda hard to say, but I think that just because a person has managed to memorize everything they ever read in textbooks, it doesn't necessarily make them intelligent. Knowledgeable and intelligent aren't necessarily the same thing. I know plenty of people who have loads of knowledge, but can't seem to actually use the knowledge they have in a smart way. And vice versa, I know people who are very smart, but don't have much education or knowledge. -
this i true. I store information readily, but this doesn't always translate to meaningfull application. Also there are two kinds of memory, storage and process-memory.
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I wonder, too, about the ability to communicate effectively and 'emotional intelligence'.
Sometimes those with an enormous amount of factual knowledge have an inability to express it effectively. Others might not have that difficulty.
So, maybe one's overall 'intelligence' is comprised of a variety of factors that are not easily quantified.
(Bad news for the statistics people, apparently.)
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i always thought that there ought to be a driving-IQ test. Or rather a obervation/decision-making test for drivers.
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Ah, what a wonderful world it would be...
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Ha. As long as I'm not on the road while they're taking it!
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very funny MWM. But seriously, how much more would we have to spend on public transportation!
It is sheer chance that we make it safely to our destinations as often as we do
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I think if everyone used public transportation we'd probably get there safely a whole lot more often. It's generally harder for a small car to smash a bus into molecules than the other way around, so public transportation is safer. At least for the people on the bus, and as long as the person driving the bus has a brain...
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How about an IQ test before you're allowed to have a child? While we're at it, let's also administer a "prejudice test". -
I think a prejudice test would be a great idea. Only people would probably whitewash their answers. -
Very true. How many people start out by saying, "I'm not racist, but..." or "Some of my best friends are..."
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I don't think you can accurately assign a number to intelligence with a single test.-
I agree.
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My sister is a psychologist and I was her test subject when she was studying about personality/intelligence tests. I did them all. With a pencil and timer
As many of you, I also think that the online tests are very crappy. Also, you are not supposed to know your number, jajajaja. In general, I don't like standardized tests, all of them; IQ, SAT, GRE (specially the GRE), etc. test your ability to work under pressure and answer tests well (not correctly). They don't test your knowledge or intelligence, they test your problem-solving ability or your ability to guess the answers, not you capacity for in-depth or forward thinking. -
Who care who's more intelligent? It's just another bullshit thing. "All comparisons are odious."
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I think IQ is a helpful, but not perfect measure of intelligence. SAT scores correlate well with IQ. In high school, everyone I knew was talking about their SAT score. None of the scores surprised me. The people I knew were smart got high scores. The ones I knew were not as smart got lower scores. My SAT score would just barely qualify me for Mensa, not that I'd be interested in joining. I definitely would not trust an online IQ test.
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