Reliability of I.Q. test

[logan_run]

I took a i.q. test and scored 81.i think it ahold be higher.I like classical music and history how reliable are iq. test?

 

[Astro Pen]

A few years back I was tested by a psychologist as 128 which, given the number of mistakes I have made in life, suggests that it doesn't mean as much as people think it does
Your engaging with the expressive power of music and the pattern learning from history will serve you better. Emotional intelligence is also important in our highly social world.
ps Whatever, use proper proper psychometric resources, never rely on magazine quizes or youtube 'what's your IQ' vids.

 

[CupofJoe]

Unless an IQ test is given in a clinical or diagnostic setting, then the value of the answer is little more than useless.
Even if given by a correctly and well trained individual and in the best of circumstances there can be a large variation in the values returned. Between people and between tests. And not all tests are equal.
A few years ago as part of a selection procedure I did several IQ tests over several days. And apparently my IQ rose 30+ over the week. Now, I'm good, but not that good!

 

[thaddeus6th]

I went through a phase some years ago of doing tons of online tests. My IQ varied by something like 30-40 points I think.

I'd also add that IQ can also be overrated in terms of importance, so I wouldn't encourage people to either get carried away if they have a high one, or feel despondent if they have a lower one.

 

[-K2-]

I'm so old they gave me this one:

But, when I found out they weren't serving scotch between each part, I got mad and left. No booze...what do they think I am, stupid?
What kind of bar is this? Clearly, I'm a genius

Now hold my beer and watch me jam a crayon up my nose See, I'm talented too!

K2

 

[Astro Pen]

Now hold my beer and watch me jam a crayon up my nose See, I'm talented too!

K2

Your mother will know what you have been up to from the coloured snot on your handkerchief.

 

[farntfar]

My telephone keeps trying to give me a sort of tetris/blocks game where the score you get is supposed to be your IQ.
So 1 game you would be a genius, and the next a simpleton.

Well at least I'm not that stupid.

 

[farntfar]

K2.
The answer to the last question is Person Man Woman Camera TV.

You get extra points if you saw that news item repeated enough times that you'll probably never forget it.

 

[nixie]

According to the IQ tests that pop up now and then mine ranges from 110 to 170. I should ignore them along with the stupid quizzes, you know the ones I mean, no one can get 10 out of 10, only a genius can get 90% etc. I tell myself I need to stop falling for the click bait taking you to questions a 10 year old could answer.

 

[Narkalui]

Having high IQ means you're good at taking IQ tests, that is all

 

[kythe]

When I was 13, I had an IQ test with a psychiatrist which showed 108. My mother is a very difficult person who always put me down. They say it isn't generally a good idea for people to know their own IQ because then they judge themselves for it (but isn't that the point of the test: for those who administer and other "relevant" people to judge a person?). I held on to that number during my teenage years as a reminder to myself that I wasn't completely worthless, in spite of my family and environment.

My son had the opposite issue with IQ. He us autistic and was in Special Ed throughout his school years. When he was 4 and in public preschool the school psychologist did an IQ test on him. His verbal score was 73, spatial reasoning was 79, and math score was 116. This gives a composite score of 89.

One way to interpret this is to see 89 as within average IQ range (85-115). Another way to interpret is to look at each score individually and realize none are in average range - he would be expected to struggle with language skills and spatial reasoning and excell at math. Or you could accept that IQ tests performed on 4 yr olds aren't considered accurate and just throw it out.

None of the above happened. He did alright in elementary school, but his inclusion specialist (special ed coordinator) in middle school sabotaged him. She went to his teachers and informed them that he had low IQ and was autistic, so the focus of his education should not be in learning but in behaviors. This resulted in him frequently being singled out for "behavioral intervention", and teachers occasionally expressing surprise when he understood a concept.

It's never a compliment when someone is surprised at your success. He fought an uphill battle at school in middle and high school because he felt (sometimes accurately, I think) that teachers were "bullying" him and not acknowledging him when he did something right. Ultimately, he hates school and now at 18, he lives in a group home with no intention of continuing education.

The real clincher? He was given another IQ test at age 17 when applying for social security disability. They did not tell us the results, but the psychologist administering the test said that her preliminary impression was that spatial reasoning was his greatest strength, and he was well above average in that area. On his first test at age 4, he had scored only 79 in spatial reasoning. To top it off, he was not approved for SSD based on intellectual disability. He was approved for autism alone.

 

[MikeAnderson]

I can't even pass a urine test; I keep missing the cup.

 

[Matteo]

Many years ago I tested at 132. But I can't see how these tests are a true indication of one's intelligence - as @Narkalui says, they just mean you're good at taking those type of tests.

On the other hand, they're probably a damn sight more reliable than those dumb MBTI tests though that's faint praise...

 

[Biskit]

I actually had a fairly positive experience of IQ testing, even if I didn't understand what was going on at the time. So far as I can work out, somewhere around the age of 7, I was tagged as being educationally sub-normal or, in the terminology of the day, thick. This was probably down to the fact that I was slow learning to read, couldn't do arithmetic etc.

Then they gave us a basic IQ test where I scored high. Without that, I would probably have been left in the bin labelled "thick", and I don't think there was much in the way of remedial/special needs teaching at that time. Maybe things would have changed anyway, but I think that that test improved the way I was perceived, and perhaps opened the way for things like being selected as the one to do that daily recording of the school's little weather station.

(And, about that time, I discovered that reading did have uses, that there were interesting books in the school library, suddenly I had a reading age 3-4 years higher than my actual, and then they started teaching us basic geometry and non-decimal number systems, which really clicked for me.
I still struggle with arithmetic, though.)

The downside of some of those tests is that you can train for them. I took a lot of them between ages 7-11, and had special extra tuition at the school (so, no remedial teaching that I was aware of, but special attention for kids with ability) which improved my scores. Perhaps more modern tests are less biased, but back then there was a certain "mind-set" to them and really what the tutoring helped to do was get me to think the same way as the people setting the questions.

 

[Ursa major]

basic geometry and non-decimal number systems, which really clicked for me. I still struggle with arithmetic, though.)

It's only the arithmetic that really counts....

I have no idea what the questions were** (though the score was out of 30), but my father had to do a test to assess his cognitive abilities. He scored, I believe, 6***, thus placing his Alzheimer's in the worst of the three categories. (My mother said that he was almost crying when he heard how badly he'd done. (He wasn't the sort of person who ever shed a tear; it wasn't until much later in the progress of his condition that I first saw him (silently) weeping, and that was when he was well into his 80s.)

Now I'm not sure how useful the measure I'm about to use is for the rest of you, but my father was, before his condition set in, more clever than I am (and more diligent in applying it), so I can see why he was so upset by "failing" the test (as he saw it).


** - I've heard that one of the questions in the UK is the name of whoever is the current UK PM... but whether or not that's more than just a rumour, I don't know.

*** - It may have been 4. (My memory isn't what it used to be.... )

 

[The Judge]

I've heard that one of the questions in the UK is the name of whoever is the current UK PM... but whether or not that's more than just a rumour, I don't know.

That was certainly a question my father was asked when we first took him to the GP as we were worried about his failing memory, but that was a rather rough and ready thing and it's not part of the tests the specialists carry out as far as I'm aware. The standard tests came on a form and included a memory test as per K2's sheet -- three or four common objects or words which had to be repeated at once and then again after an interval while other tests were carried out. The one that sticks in my mind, though, as it hadn't occurred to me to be an issue for dementia, was copying an outline drawing. It wasn't a cube, I don't think, but did involve 3D spatial issues, and strangely, seeing my father make a complete mess of it was actually more upsetting than when he got confused by the other tests or couldn't remember things.

 

[Ursa major]

That was certainly a question my father was asked when we first took him to the GP as we were worried about his failing memory

Even setting aside your eyewitness account, that sounds like a much more plausible situation for when such a question might be asked than as part of the formal test for determining a subject's cognitive abilities.

 

[The Ace]

Seeing the adverts for these things, I always thought the first question was;

"Are you thick enough to pay Mensa membership ?"

I know I'm fairly bright (when the citalopram isn't making me fire on 3 cylinders), but my results on these things vary from tree stump to just below genius level, so I take them with a pinch of salt.

Seemingly, though Mum had a bit of a moment at the Doctor's when she couldn't tell him day or date - until Dad pointed out that she's literally never known what day it is, and can't remember dates.

 

[J Riff]

When will cellphone IQ surpass that of their owners? Ya gotta wonder.

 

[mosaix]

Many years ago I tested at 132. But I can't see how these tests are a true indication of one's intelligence - as @Narkalui says, they just mean you're good at taking those type of tests.

On the other hand, they're probably a damn sight more reliable than those dumb MBTI tests though that's faint praise...

At junior school I was always near the bottom of the class. My ability to remember things was, and is, terrible. This included spelling. (I was once given the strap for mis-spelling 'because' in two consecutive essays - at the age of 8!). I failed most exams or tests that involved remembering facts - or remembering how to spell. Then at age 10 the 11-plus loomed on the horizon and the junior school I attended gave us the chance to try out previous 11-plus tests prior to the real thing. A bit like mocks I suppose. There was a section in the 11-plus exam that's a bit like an IQ test - I loved every bit of it. It was an eye-opener for me - something I could actually do. Of course, I failed my 11-plus went on to secondary modern and discovered geometry! Something that was logical from start to finish with hardly any remembering required.

I did reasonably well in certain subjects at school (not History!) and not long into my first job was given a computer programming aptitude test - 100%. I'd found my calling in life!

In my mid-twenties my IQ registered in the mid 130's. The whole thing is a nonsense. My sister has an IQ of about 115 but has an English degree.