National IQ test

[Dell19]

Did anyone else watch this last night? It was actually quite interesting to see which groups of people got the highest IQs. The teachers won in the end...Also it was interesting to play allong at home. I ended up getting an IQ of 123, which is quite good. Most people get between 90 and 110.

If you didn't watch the program, have you taken any other IQ tests and what did you get?

 

[Lucky]

We had a similar show in Germany some months ago. It was quite interesting but also clear that you can´t take any of the results too seriously.

It made for a good family evening, we all followed the show and took part in it. The final IQ ranking and calculation was severely flawed though, the increase older (>40) and younger people (<18) get for their age is simply unreasonable.
Anyway I scored something like 138, my father got 139, my mother 134 and my sister 126.

So we are one smart family!

Some of my fellow students in unversity also took part and scored equal or insignificantly lower results.

 

[ainwood]

Didn't see the show, so not sure how the questions were structured. However, I sat an "official" IQ test once, and the big thing that made it difficult was the time constraint. I generally got nowhere near to finishing any of the sections, meaning that many answers were virtually "instinctive", and you sure as heck didn't get a chance to review any of them.


What sort of questions were asked? Most of the ones in the test I did were pattern recognition and derivitives of that.

 

[Dell19]

There were some sequences questions, where you had to predict the next number, plenty of pattern questions, some maths questions. There were some English questions and a memory section. Since I was classified in the 16-19 category I couldn't get as higher score as other people...

 

[stormerne]

Not having a television... do you know if there is a web-based version of this and if so could you post the link please?

IQ tests were very popular in the early 60s in England. I had stacks of them and I used to score off-scale (140+) every time. This made me wonder whether it was simply possible to "get good at them", whether these tests were simply not designed to measure people of much higher than average IQ, or whether the whole IQ concept was flawed. I never did get an accurate IQ reading in the end because if you consistently get 100% in all tests and so end up off-scale, you're in such a minority that it's no longer commercially viable to research and produce tests for you.

 

[NY Hoya]

Stormerne,

You can take an online test here:

www.thespark.com

I doubt that it's at all accurate, but who knows?

 

[Greadius]

I find something about IQ tests annoying. Like you can attach a number to intelligence because you could make sense of a mind puzzle.
Maybe I'm just bitter because my mind is easily bent by mind-benders.
Of cousre, like all highly competitive people to whom standardized tests don't cooperate, I have to find solace in the fact that intelligence is useless if it is not used. At least I know I'm maximizing

 

[philippe]

in one iq test i had 89 and in a other 163 THATS inaccurate

 

[Suppersalmon]

I got 127

 

[anarchywrksbest]

I took the test and got 120.

I've taken other test and got above 130 so it hard to tell if its accurate.

You can take the TV test at www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation/

You download a flash program and it send the results to the BBCi
They will send you your result. The test is very well done with proper time limits and everything.

 

[dannyevilcat]

Originally posted by NY Hoya
Stormerne,

You can take an online test here:

www.thespark.com

I doubt that it's at all accurate, but who knows?

Yes, I took this test a long time ago. Very good

 

[Kefka]

I took some IQ test's before and I got like 145 or something like that (somewere in the 40's I dont remember exactly but I do remember being upset because I was one point away from Genius ) but I never do put much stock in any kind of IQ tests especily when there trying to sell you stuff

Originally posted by Greadius
Like you can attach a number to intelligence because you could make sense of a mind puzzle.

that should be the quote of the week when talking about IQ tests

 

[JoeM]

As the average score across the UK was something like 107-109 does this not throw questions into the ring about accuracy and validity? If 100 is the average IQ, how can the average score be higher than 100...? Doh!

I heard a rumour that several countries were taking part, was this true?

My score = 134

 

[JoeM]

The question about the unfolding box (cube with plain sides bar one checkered and another diagonally striped). How was answer B correct...?

I got a test from Mensa when I was fourteen and completed it (loads and loads of questions) then at the end I found it cost something like £40 to have it marked. How dumb did I feel? Still at least I didn't pay up!

 

[polymath]

Stormerne:
"This made me wonder whether it was simply possible to "get good at them" "
Yes, you can in fact revise for IQ tests. But I have never found online resources to do this. It involves remembering things like MTWTFS (days of the week), JFMAMJ etc. (months of the year) and other stuff like number sequences. But I couldn't say how much it helps. This doesn't strike me as 'increasing your IQ', it's more like 'learning the sort of questions they ask'.

 

[Dell19]

Originally posted by JoeM
As the average score across the UK was something like 107-109 does this not throw questions into the ring about accuracy and validity? If 100 is the average IQ, how can the average score be higher than 100...? Doh!

The average for the program was over the normal average because only about 100000 took part. Now this would be okay normally, but you would expect that cleverer than normal people would do the test online...

 

[JoeM]

Originally posted by Dell19


The average for the program was over the normal average because only about 100000 took part. Now this would be okay normally, but you would expect that cleverer than normal people would do the test online...

1 million isn't a bad sample and the results aren't only online, wasn't there a TV text option or something?

My online submissions didn't ask me anything about myself bar my mail address and my age bracket, but the programme displayed stats for eye colour, etc. even football team preference. Did you get these options?

 

[Greadius]

Originally posted by Kefka
that should be the quote of the week when talking about IQ tests

I'm not smart enough to figure out if this is picking on me

 

[JoeM]

Originally posted by Greadius
I'm not smart enough to figure out if this is picking on me

Which brings up another point, what's the point in telling people they are dumber than everyone else?

They'll start claiming discrimination from the welfare state, dumb'll become a new classification of disability, then people will start PRETENDING to be dumb, and no-one'll ever say anything smart incase they get shopped to the Fuzz, civilisation will be brought to it's knee's....AAAAAARGH!

 

[mrog]

Posted by Lucky

"The final IQ ranking and calculation was severely flawed though, the increase older (>40) and younger people (<18) get for their age is simply unreasonable."

I haven't seen the program in question but many brief intelligence tests add points for people in particular age groups. This is because they are designed to estimate the score a person would get if they sat a full intelligence test.