Read all about the IQ test

March 16th, 2010 | by internet |

I am sure you’ve heard of an IQ test by now. In a lot of printed publications, focused on women in particular, you may find them. Or just google ‘IQ tests’ and you will get as many as you like. You simply fill in your answer to the tasks given in the test. Press ‘Submit’ and seconds later you will have the judgement of your mental capacity.

But what exactly is an IQ test, anyway? And what does the score mean? IQ is the ‘Intelligence Quotient’, a number telling how ’smart’ you are compared to other people. It may be used to see if you are likely to do well in some proffessions or in academic studies.

The whole idea of the IQ test is to measure the potential of your brains using problems posed to you on paper. Written problem solving is the core idea of IQ tests. Then your results are compared to other people. It is the most used method to measure human intelligence.

The average IQ score is 100. Any score over 100 means you are more intelligent than average. A score below 100 tells that you are less intelligent than average.

Advantages of the IQ Test

  • Recruitment Let’s say you’re hiring someone for a new job. One way to get a better understanding of the candidate’s capabilities would be to let them take an IQ test. The test could be on logical, linguistic and spatial intelligence. These may be more related to the type of work involved. The results should give a clue on the suitability of the candidate for the position. That way some candidates could be eliminated since they would most likely not be able to make the job.
  • College entrance You could get potential students to sit for an IQ test to gauge their intelligence in addition to their SAT scores. This would be useful if there are too few places on the course to accommodate everyone who wants to study. You could pick the cream of the crop from the high IQ scorers and send rejection slips to those who didn’t make the grade.

Negative sides of the IQ test

  • IQ tests are not perfect A High IQ sore does not guarantee that you also perform well in other important aspects. Quite a large share of high IQ persons are simply not as successful as you would expect from their IQ score.
  • Not the most important success factor Many students with high IQ are a dissapointment when they hand in their term papers. Studies have found out that a student’s self-discipline is a better gauge of how well they’ll do at college or high school. Relying only on smartness is not enough you must put whatever IQ you have to work to do really well. Often high IQ students are overtaken since they do not put in enough effort as the courses become more difficult.

  • Many abilites are not measured by IQ testsFor example IQ tests can’t measure how well you’ll do as a leader. Another area not covered is your emotional intelligence, also called EQ, how good you are at handling other people and relationships. There is also the theory of multiple intelligences, that defines 8 different aspects of intelligence that you may have to varying degrees. So your IQ score may not be the only defining factor in your overall intelligence.


Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.