IQ Tests

[Solaris]

Did you ever took an IQ test twice? Tell me, it showed the same values? An IQ test doesn't show the true value of the IQ, ut depends on many factors. Mine was: 129,138 and 125. How is that?

[pulkit]

Yes i have taken iq tests......how would they possibly give the same value each time ? It is not a deterministic value, there have to be slight variations, like in your case.

[atinymonkey]

No, an IQ test score is based on averages. That's why it's different, it depends what the average is based on. It's a stupid test.

[pulkit]

What do u mean by saying its based on averages ?

[Sayonara]

The average is fixed at 100.

[LucidDreamer]

An IQ test is a great tool for determining how well you will do on IQ tests. It's not much good for anything else. I have personally scored up to 50 points different on various tests. The online tests are especially bad. I think IQ tests test certain intellectual abilities but not raw intellectual abilities. You can raise your IQ tremendously just like you can raise college entrance exam scores.

[Sayonara]

The fact that you managed to type several reasonable sentences indicates you are more intelligent than an IQ test result of 50 would otherwise suggest.

[LucidDreamer]

LOL, I was saying that there was a difference of 50 points on two different tests.

[Sayonara]

Oh yeah.

 

Curse my eyes.

[Guest Darwin39]

An IQ test is a great tool for determining how well you will do on IQ tests. It's not much good for anything else. I have personally scored up to 50 points different on various tests. The online tests are especially bad. I think IQ tests test certain intellectual abilities but not raw intellectual abilities. You can raise your IQ tremendously just like you can raise college entrance exam scores.

 

I agree about the online IQ tests I have taken several and my scores range from 115- 147 an IQ of 147 would make me a genius so I think that one was right

On a more serious note, with regards to the education of children with learning difficulties, the wrong IQ score can affect their entire life. For example, a child who has an IQ below 70 is considered unable to read and live independently here in the UK. This raises two interesting questions. Firstly is it reasonable to rely on one IQ score and let that influence a child's future? Secondly what if that score is wrong?

 

[MulderMan]

what do IQ tests actually prove about a person. People laugh at me when i say they dont prove how 'smart' you are, and they reply "thats why its called inteligence questionairre right andy". and then i get another headache, why am i surrounded by idiots in the public schooling system!

[Ben_Phys618]

To that you should be replying with a smug tone, "Actually its called Intelligence Quota."

What the IQ test attempts to measure is your crystalline intelligence, (aquired knowledge) fluid intelligence, (problem solving abilities) and the speed with which you can use these intelligences, and compare it to everybody else thats taken the test. The scores range from 0 to 200 on a Normal Distribution Curve, with 100 as the mean value and a standard deviation of 15. So to score a result over 115 would mean you scored better than 68% of all people who took the test, over 130, better than 98% etc etc.

While it is true you can increase your IQ by increasing your general knowledge and speed at answering the questions, this only affects it slightly. The majority of the score is based around fluid intelligence, which is influenced a fair bit by our genes. The rest of this fluid intelligence ability is formed in a early developmental stages, and lots of mental stimulation at this time can greatly increase a child's potential IQ. However, after about the age of 6 or 7, this ability is usually at the maximum it will ever be.

[Dapthar]

To that you should be replying with a smug tone' date=' "Actually its called Intelligence Quota."

What the IQ test attempts to measure is your crystalline intelligence, (aquired knowledge) fluid intelligence, (problem solving abilities) and the speed with which you can use these intelligences, and compare it to everybody else thats taken the test.

...

The majority of the score is based around fluid intelligence, which is influenced a fair bit by our genes. The rest of this fluid intelligence ability is formed in a early developmental stages, and lots of mental stimulation at this time can greatly increase a child's potential IQ. However, after about the age of 6 or 7, this ability is usually at the maximum it will ever be.[/quote'] I find your claims that problem solving abilities (or fluid intelligence, as you call it) fail to significantly increase beyond age 6 or 7, and fluid intelligence is "influenced a fair bit by our genes", rather hard to believe.

 

Granted, there are those whose intelligence is severely hampered by a mental disability (e.g. autistics), and those whose is greatly enhanced in some areas, at the expense of others (e.g. savants). However, I doubt that the large majority of the populace's problem solving abilities are heavily influenced by genetics. I attribute this doubt to the simple fact that almost anyone who is willing to commit the time to learning enhances their problem solving abilities, which is evidenced by an increase in the amount of problems that they are able to successfully solve.

 

Also, regarding the assertion that problem solving abilities do not increase significantly beyond age 6 or 7, I highly doubt that this claim is true, for a reason similar to that of the genetics claim, i.e., applying oneself to their studies increases one's problem solving abilities.

 

One of the few rationales I can surmise that would support your claim is that you place a much greater emphasis upon sensory-motor based problem solving, rather than abstract thought. In that case, it is true that if faculties such as visual, auditory, and tactile perception have not fully developed by ages 6-7, they most likely never will.

 

On a bit of a tangential note, a website with more information about savants and savant syndrome is located here http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/whatsnew.cfm

[Ben_Phys618]

Well, its been a while since I looked over my Psych textbook, so I did that last night. You're right on half of it. Genetics doesn't have as much to do with it as I thought. But, the development thing is right. Sure, you can study up, apply yourself, and increase your general knowledge and speed, and this will increase your Intelligence ,but it will not increase your IQ Thats the point I was trying to make. IQ does not asess one's intelligence with any great validity. I'm sure you can become more intelligent as you get older, but you will find it very hard to raise your IQ score significantly as you get older.

 

Also, if you repeatedly do problem solving excersies and get better at them, you will have increased your ability at that kind of problem, but that has just made it crystalline. You now have the general knowledge of how to solve such problems. There is an innate ability in most of us (that I found out now does mostly depend on how we are raised) that allows us to solve new problems. Even if you got very skilled at solving the problems you practised, if you didn't have a very high fluid intelligence, when you came up against a new problem you had never seen before, it would take you longer to work out how to solve it.

[LucidDreamer]

I don't know of any courses you can take to improve your IQ as an adult, probably because having a high IQ is not very useful. However SAT scores are extremely important to high school students looking to go to college in the U.S. For many years businesses have been offering courses to improve SAT scores.

For example, the Princeton review says:

 

"Our students' scores improve an average of 140 points. The top 25 percent improve by 250 points or more. Your score is guaranteed to jump at least 100 points."

 

250 points out of 1600 is a significant raise. These courses work and if a student was even more diligent he could begin practicing even earlier, and score even higher. So what? Well, a sat test is just a form of IQ test. In fact, I believe Mensa use to take sat scores for their membership requirements. Here is more proof that SAT scores correlate with IQ scores:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=sat+scores+iq&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=

[MolecularMan14]

IS there a ut off date for brain development? How old? I would love to starting working up so I dont become dumb later in life...coz there's nothing worse than a dumb old person.

[LucidDreamer]

Of course, the sooner the better. Certain abilities are learned much more easily as a child. There is actually a pruning of your brain at certain ages where your brain sheds brain cells it doesn't use much. The theory goes something to the effect that your brain sheds these neurons to make the areas that you do use more efficient. But I don't think your brain ever has to stop developing, disregarding disease.

 

You can radically improve your intelligence with enough hard work. If you are really dedicated to improving your intelligence there are lots of things you can do. Make your brain developing program part of your daily routine, kind of like working out, but for your brain. Keep a journal to track your progress. Here are some suggestions for increasing your intelligence:

 

1) Practice building your vocabulary. One of the ways that we think is verbal-if you have a larger vocabulary you are a better verbal thinker.

2) Learn Mnemonic systems. Get a book like "Mega Memory" from Kevin Trodou and incorporate its system into your studies.

3) Buy or rent a book on mind puzzles and work on few each day.

4) Learn to play an instrument. Music involves patterns; research has shown a strong correlation between music and math skills

5) Learn another language. Each language has its own particular nuances. Every culture thinks a little bit differently about their world and by learning their language you learn another way of thinking.

6) Practice using your mental eye. Work on using your visualization skills until you can vividly produce any image

7) Carry a notebook around where you can record your ideas. Work on generating as many ideas as you can about a variety of subjects. Whenever you find a problem try to generate several ideas to come up with a solution.

[MolecularMan14]

lol, sounds like the guidelines for intelligence. But all the same, I'll try to progress in every one...especially #7, I think I'll use my palm to take audio notes tho...much more compact than a notebook

[MulderMan]

anyone a member of mensa?

[SurfSciGuy]

I was a member of mensa, as a child - deeply embarrassing. I fail to see the point of the organisation. IQ is just a test, like all other tests it test you on certain aspects of your intelligence, not all of it, and like other tests it isn't infallable. I consider the fact that I got a first at uni much more of a marker of my intellect than the fact that I scored over 140 on a mensa test.

[MulderMan]

i still think someone should invent a flawless test to prove inteligence or improve on iq test standards. what i mean is one where there is no right or wrong answer, and you cannot guess the answer like in most modern compulsary government testing.

[SurfSciGuy]

i still think someone should invent a flawless test to prove inteligence or improve on iq test standards. what i mean is one where there is no right or wrong answer, and you cannot guess the answer like in most modern compulsary government testing.

 

Just let me finish my perpetual motion machine and I'll get onto the flawless testing right away!

 

I'm not sure by what you mean by "guess the answer" - if you mean working it out by deductive reasoning rather than use of acquired knowledge I'd argue that that is exactly what we should be testing for, not eliminating.

[MolecularMan14]

anyone a member of mensa?

 

What exactly is mensa? It sounds so farmiliar but I cant quite put my finger on it...

[MulderMan]

http://www.mensa.org/ - the high IQ society lol. a money making scam in my oppinion;). SurfSciGuy what i meant is i know poeple in some science tests especially that are multipal choice they just flick through the test paper and circle any answer and come out with top marks, where thr people that work hard get lower marks when there trying to compete with pure probability.

[pulkit]

i know poeple in some science tests especially that are multipal choice they just flick through the test paper and circle any answer and come out with top marks, where thr people that work hard get lower marks when there trying to compete with pure probability.

 

I have acctually never known of anyone who succeded doing that, after all it would require extremely good luck.

but gettin lower marks than someone like that, when you prepare hard.............thats a one in a million shot.