It measures cognitive abilities, and it is one of (not necessarily the most important in all cases) factors that predict (correlation, not necessarily causation) academic and work success.
It is the subject of a lot of controversy, as curiously sports competitions that rank specific physical abilities that may correlate to specific real life abilities are OK, but anything trying to rank specific intelligence abilities are sort of taboo.
Also because it may be a perverse self fulfilling correlation, as it may boost or harm your self confidence and dedication, which has an even higher correlation to success in many cases than IQ alone.
Some argue that it is biased, but then academia and jobs is also biased, and the correlation has been measured.
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