Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What's your IQ?

dogbone said:
Spatial awareness is a legitimate criterion for IQ tests. Australian aborigines would do very well on this part.
Click to expand...
That might be... but Mensa doesn't use those... nor the general knowledge questions, and that was my main issue... in addition to whatever language issues I'm having (online tests like this should strive to be language independent... even if I know that might be difficult as some language skills are linked with IQ... ;)).
 
133 on the easy test. On the hard test- I pressed the forward button too soon without seeing the score- not that I'd want to know it.

Those general knowledge questions and remembering the patterns was impossible. I'm no rain-man.

It's true that great mathematicians, scientists and computer programmers etc. have a much higher IQ on average than the general public. However, it's also true that great basketball players tend to be much taller on average than the general public. The mistake is to think that all tall people will be good basketball players- or that there are no good short basketball players. It's the same with IQ tests. Not all great minds have large IQ's, and only a few people with large IQ's have great minds.

I'm willing to bet that Mac owners are somewhat smarter than the average population- but I'm also sure that there are plenty of clever people who buy Dells.

Uh what am I ranting on about now?
 
dynamicv said:
A genius is 147 or above. If you were clever, you would know that :p :p
Click to expand...

I thought it was anyone with an IQ above 125 or 130?

I've taken a regular IQ test (the "WAIS") when I was at Uni and getting an ADD test done on me, and yeah, it seems to vary a bit with these tests. Sometimes I score way higher, and sometimes I score a bit lower. I trust the WAIS, but I guess this is an ok test.
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
That might be... but Mensa doesn't use those... nor the general knowledge questions, and that was my main issue... in addition to whatever language issues I'm having (online tests like this should strive to be language independent... even if I know that might be difficult as some language skills are linked with IQ... ;)).
Click to expand...

Yes I agree that the general knowlege knowledge test is a bit suspect and also the very complex mathematical names for particular parameters was extremely arcane, and I do not see at all how that is relevent to general intelligence.

I suppose we all have to have at least 30 points deducted for merely shooting the breeze on internet forums. :)
 
My IQ results vary with different online tests that I take. Somtimes I will get 110, other times I will get 130+. One time I got 188, but I think there must have been a calculation error there ;).

For this particular test I got 121.
 
IQ scores (and the tests) were not created equally, and they have not been calibrated internationally. From my understanding (as a psychology student), IQ tests from the USA give roughly a ten point advantage over tests from other parts of the world. This isn't saying that people from the USA are either "smarter" or "more stupid", just that the tests are scaled differently. The relationship is apparently (and understandably) linear, which makes it easy to convert, yet still mildly confusing.

As many have said, IQ tests do no measure a person's intelligence. Rather, they measure a section of a person's intelligence. They have their place as a quick, easy and cost-efficient way to get an indication of how different people react to the same circumstances/problems/questions.

However, it is all too easy to take them out of context and either overrate or underrate them. I've always thought they should be renamed to imply less of an absolute measure. Unfortunately, my IQ score of twelve severely inhibits my ability to think up a good name. :(
 
skunk said:
You'd have to be really stupid to think these tests had any validity, but almost everyone is apparently near to genius level. Strange.
Click to expand...
That's just MacRumors. You're in very intelligent company here, my friend. ;)

I won't bother with this one – I've done a couple of the 'Test the Nation' IQ tests that the BBC runs every so often, and have got a result in the 130s on each occasion. To be honest though, I don't put a lot of faith in the results – as others have mentioned, all that your IQ score really says about you is how good you are at taking IQ tests.
 
skunk said:
You'd have to be really stupid to think these tests had any validity, but almost everyone is apparently near to genius level. Strange.
Click to expand...

Of course we're geniuses. We like Macs don't we?

Why is it stupid to believe that IQ tests have some validity? There has been some perfectly good research done on them over the years showing that they at least in some way correlate with 'intelligence' in a multitude of disciplines. If you think you know why all of the research is obviously wrong then you should try publishing a rebuttal in the literature.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
That's just MacRumors. you're in very intelligent company here, my friend. ;)
Click to expand...

Except for me.

Jaffa Cake said:
I won't bother with this one – I've done a couple of the 'Test the Nation' IQ tests that the BBC runs every so often, and have got a result in the 130s on each occasion.
Click to expand...

yeah I get that on those tests easily, but try this one, it's not easy.
 
166 - on "real" IQ tests it's usually more like 148, so I think this is a bit...like...inaccurate, or I'm on a good day *giggle*
 
145 on a good day, but I think IQ tests are crap.

I tried to do poorly on an IQ test I was given in 3rd grade just so I wouldn't be sent away to magnet school away from my friends. I was devastated when I found out I'd passed with a 130 and would be transfered. How stupid I was then.....
 
I got 132 for this one, and I've found that I usually get in the 130s in similar online tests. Though as many others have mentioned, I don't really think they're all that accurate or demographic specific to be a really good measure of intelligence.
 
range from 112 to 136 from the ones i have taken online...some have 25 questions and are fairly hard and some have considerably more questions so i don't know how accurate these types of tests can be

but usually the longer the test, the more time one has to settle into test taking mode and the higher the score is

also taking many iq tests tends to yield better scores each time

btw...how many questions on this one?

i remember a former iq thread here and people were scoring 150s, 160s, and 170s on them...so it must have been an easier test...or today's macrumors crowd is not as smart as the previous one ;)
 
It depends on which test... on the WAIS-III IQ test I score 136 (my performance scores were at the top of the scale while my verbal scores were above average), on the Cattell IQ test I score 154, and back when I was in grade school I was scoring between 124 and 130 on the WISC IQ test.

Beyond curiosity, the only time that my scores on an IQ test mattered was back in 1992 when I was considering joining Mensa. In the end it didn't even matter then as I quickly found out that there was (at least for me) no good reason to pay for a membership to that club (after attending a couple meetings I found it wasn't that enjoyable and that it would be a waste of money).

In all other endeavors the opinions of others in my field was the only thing that mattered. Even above things like what degrees I had (or didn't have) and what GPA I had at the time. Letters of recommendation from the right people saying the right things have always moved mountains for me. What would seem like impassible obstacles for most people have rarely slowed me down when I set my goals... and have the right support.


Besides, I've always done badly on tests. :D
 
IQ tests are bunk, and I can't be arsed to take that one, but a similarly looking online one gave me a 147, a "real" IQ test i took gave me a 143.

regardless, they're garbage. maybe if you consider a plus/minus correction of like plus or minus 20 they'd give SOME indication of intelligence but they're still stupid.
 
RacerX said:
on the Cattell IQ test I score 154,


Besides, I've always done badly on tests. :D
Click to expand...

154 ain't bad at all and it's certainly mensa quality

many test preparers (ctb mcgraw hill and ets where many locals where i live work as research scientists and research associates) doubt that any score above 160 can be measured accurately...and scores over 200 are completely hogwash but marilyn vos savant (world's smartest living person) is a very sharp cookie and it could be because she has been rated at 212 to 225 on some iq scales, but more than anything, she has a lot of wisdom
 
126, however I was listening to techno and prone to staring out the window at the thunderheads forming on the horizon...

That said, how the hell does this measure any sort of actual intelligence, if I might ask? Does knowing what team qualified for every World Cup ever show that I'm more intelligent? Absolutely not. Does knowing that Reagan had Alzheimer's and Ali had Parkinson's demonstrate that I'm more intelligent than other people, no, it shows that I've read briefly about them. :rolleyes:

All a load of BS as far as I'm concerned. As soon as anything about cultural awareness is brought into play it loses credibility...I mean the dumbest literate person in the world could have read those facts in a magazine 5 years ago and spit them back up on that test...how does that demonstrate basic intelligence? Do you think Albert Einstein would have known all of the 'general knowledge' questions? Bah.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back