What does an IQ test measure and how do you interpret the results?
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An IQ test is an oversimplified method of testing intelligence. In an IQ test, the question difficulty is set based on the age of the person taking it. Points are awarded not for how many questions you get right, but rather how many you get right relative to everyone else in your age bracket.
I’m not sure of the exact point specifications so lets say it’s a quiz of 200 questions (it’s not. This is hypothetical) and most people aged twenty get 100 of them right. Then any 20 year old getting above that has a higher than average IQ. The current average IQ is 95 to 105 points. Below 60, I think, is considered to have a learning disability. Obove 140 is considered to be genius.
Because the test changes based on your age, a person’s IQ can vary as they get older. Also, IQ tests aren’t really held as a decent judge of intelligence because they don’t differentiate for different intelligence types or whether somebody has been studying beforehand or wings it.
They’re a series of tests that test logic, deduction, pattern recognition, basic numeracy and vocabulary skills as a proxy for measuring a persons intelligence using a measuring system that’s mostly independently of a person’s knowledge.
The tests are graded based on a person’s age, on the basis younger brains are naturally still developing skills and learning the background knowledge (vocab) needed to do well.
The faster and more accurately you can complete the test the higher you score.
They were huge a while ago, although have fallen out of popularity in recent years due to issues about how they measure a relatively narrow band of intelligence and how the results need to be interpreted with a very broad brush. A person with a tested IQ of 100 vs 110… very hard to really predict how they’ll translate that into the world, and how it ties in with untested forms of intelligence they might have. But a tested IQ of 65 vs 100 and you’re talking about someone who likely has a very noticeable learning disability, or 100 vs 135 – the latter is likely to be able to demonstrate noticeably better academic performance, but it’s uncertain how they’ll combine that with emotional/social intelligence or how they’ll apply motivation.
Today when it is used it’s used as one factor among many to assess a persons ability.
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