What is your IQ?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Some examples of why I don't believe IQ tests measure your practical intelligence (all the questions are taken from existing IQ tests):

1. John likes 400 but not 300; he likes 100 but not 99; he likes 3600 but not 3700. Which does he like? a. 900 b. 1000 c. 1100 d.1200

Answer1: a. 900, because it's the square of an integer, unlike the other numbers

Answer2: b&c, 1000 and 900 - because the sum of the digits comprising these numbers is the square of an integer, unlike with 1100 and 1200.

Answer3: a. 900, because the factorization of the ones he dislike contain at least one prime factor which only occurs once in the factorization.

Answer4: b. 1000, because it's a common number when dealing with metric systems, like the others John liked. 400 is the number of degrees in the newer military system for measuring angles, 100 is the number of centimeters per meter, and 3600 is the number of seconds per hour. 1000 is used in many cases such as 1 kg = 1000 g, etc., while 900, 1100 and 1200 aren't used in any common metric systems.

Test maker's answer: a, nothing else is considered correct


2. Which one doesn't belong? a. Apple, b. Orange, c. Banana, d. Tomato (there were pictures on all of them next to the question)

Answer1: d. Obviously the tomato, because it's a vegetable, the others being fruits

Answer2: c. Obviously the banana, because all others are almost spherical

Answer3: a. Obviously the apple, because it's got a so-called "temperate color" (blue or green) while the others have "hot colors" (red or yellow).

Answer4: x, because the x in picture x wasn't ripe while the others were ripe

Test maker's answer: d, nothing else considered correct.

All that is tested is whether you think the same way as the maker of the test. Often more knowledge about a subject often also decreases your ability to answer the questions. Looking at question2, for example an expert at biology would claim that there's no biological difference between vegetables and fruits, which would immediately make him/her consider d an impossible answer. There's also no need to motivate your answers in the IQ tests, which means it's impossible to tell whether the answer was really the result of intelligence or just a guess, or some stupid way of thinking, that for some reason happened to lead to the same result. What's more, it's possible to increase your intelligence by practising at IQ tests. I improved my score by 50 after practising for a few hours, and this was when I was 10 years old. Typically I now when making these tests see around at least 3 possible systems, often all of them resulting in different answers, for each question. What checkbox do I check in those cases? I think these Mensa and others who create IQ tests are a fraud. That said, a good score is never a bad thing...</END RANT>