My beef with IQ tests.

[Baitball Blogger]

It's an easy one. People can prepare for them, just by getting familiar with the kind of questions that are asked. Just knowing what questions you might come across on a test removes an important element of anxiety.

And, let's face it. In this world when we're allocating resources to people who can prove they're in the top two percentage levels for IQ, it's a given that many who are in the top tiers of power are getting access to the questions AND the answers.

Speaking of Mensa, I know some got there in a valid manner. But I have a hunch not all have.

On the other hand, some tests are promising at identifying gifted kids, especially when they're applied to the young. There's a Math test that all kids are given in our area for that purpose. (Duke or Dartmouth). It finds the young who have a gift for Math. That kind of thing is difficult to fake.

Anyway, point is, if you're looking for some kind of Jim Crow test to find justification to redirect public resources to a small, connected group, just put an IQ requirement on the qualifications. Those tests are like anything else in this day and age. Easily accessible, and easily gamed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. The concept of IQ is rooted in racism and ableism.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. +1

[Johonny]

16. +1

[Retrograde]

24. Some examples of early "intelligence" tests

measured the taker's familiarity with American life rather than ability to think or reason. There are some examples given in Stephen Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man" and Okrent's "The Guarded Gate", as well as here and here Good luck passing them!

[bluewater]

3. My personal BEEF with IQ Tests... my score isn't high enough *sniffle*

[Siwsan]

4. When I was in 8th grade, the nun handed me the grade book to take attendance

She had been called to the office.

I opened the book and the first column, next to the names, was labeled 'IQ'. So, yea, first I checked out what was written next to my name, and then glanced at a few others.

In retrospect - kind of irresponsible of her to have handed me that information. Maybe she thought I wasn't smart enough to notice. Which means she didn't pay any attention to the number next to my name.

[Beakybird]

5. I remember telling my Mexican spouse that my aunt belonged to the Mensa Society

Mensa means dummy in Spanish. She wasn't impressed 🤣.

[RobinA]

6. Assumes Facts

not in evidence. Where are these resources given to people who can prove they're in the top two percentage of IQs? Who says the people getting all the resources by this scenario are in the top 2 percentage? IQ is one thing. Several kinds of thinking measured by a test. Useful, maybe, but not the be all and end all. I would be very surprised if they are all that gameable. I'm bad at math, I couldn't game it. I'm actually quite good at some things measured by the IQ, I don't need to game it and I doubt someone not good at those things could.

Are you at all familiar with Mensa? It's not some group of millionaires, movers and shakers, it's a bunch of every day people mostly.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. Good points. And the suggestion of a reduction in anxiety by knowing what the test is like

Seems tenuous for a couple of reasons.

First of all, granted this was the 1970's, but when I went in for my IQ test it was at school (5th grade I think?) and I literally had no idea I was taking it. I didn't have ANY warning, and in fact I didn't even know what an 'IQ test' was.

Secondly, your anxiety could actually go UP ... if you felt like maybe you weren't that good at doing what you saw in advance was on the test. Could actually make you do worse.

[Ursus Rex]

7. If you're taking "IQ Tests" with answers you can memorize, you're not really taking an IQ test.

Psychometrists* exist for many reasons, one of which is that you can't judge IQ by just testing memory, which is what you do when people know the answer beforehand. I know people who claim to have "180 IQ level" which is laughable when you ask them which psychometrist they met with and they tell you it was an online or mail-in test (or the equivalent). They have no idea what a trained, reputable psychologist or psychometrist would gauge their "IQ" to be, in which dimensions, etc., etc. (and it's like 99.9% NOT 180). Like a lot of psychological topics, "IQ" is huge set of statistical groupings, measures, deviations, etc., and not a weight/height chart. That in and of itself is part of the IQ test, I guess

Also, yeah, an IQ test itself is basically useless except for bragging at parties and on Facebook or whatever, since it often changes a few points up or down, each time you take one, not to mention that different test/scales can have very different ranges. It's not a scam, but it's been cheapened to the point that it may as well be.

*LOL, but definitely not experts/practitioners in "psychometry," which is woo nonsense.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. I know it can be gamed because there is a phenomenon called

There was a term, something like creeping IQ scores, that showed that IQ rates were increasing from generation to generation. But, the conclusion was that the IQ test taken by someone in 1940 was not "lower." It just meant that the new generation was more prepared to take them.

Now I hear that they intentionally change the tests with the intention of getting the "average" population to fall into the 100 to 125 range, with 112 being the mean.

Really, I don't know how they can do that without a tremendous amount of subjectivity involved.

[Jim__]

14. I think you're talking about the Flynn effect.

From wikipedia:

The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century.[1] When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first. Again, the average result is set to 100. However, when the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. That sounds about right.

[sarisataka]

13. When I took my "official" IQ test

The psychologist first explained the results in standard deviation. She said that is the most accurate, to put you in a range.

She did break it down into percentage which is fairly accurate but gave the score with several caveats. Some tests are better than others in certain ranges and in all cases the farther a person is from the "normal" 100, the less accurate a precise IQ score is.

[GumboYaYa]

19. I grew up in a rural area.

They gave us standard IQ tests in school on year. They did not believe my results so they brought in a team of psychologists. I took a bunch of different tests, written and verbal. They made me meet with three different psychologists. It took the entire day. Then no one would not tell me the results. It thoroughly confused me as a child.

[sarisataka]

8. I have taken several IQ tests

Including one administered by a licensed psychologist trained to administer such test. She said that ironically she doesn't know her own IQ. She was trained to administer the tests before taking one so she is disqualified. Her knowledge of the testing material and procedures is considered to render any results invalid.

I know I'm not smart enough to always remember where I leave my keys but I am smart enough to save $79 per year. Mensa always struck me as elitist.

[edhopper]

11. IQ tests do not test intelligence

they test how well you do on IQ tests.

[obamanut2012]

12. IQ tests test how well you do on IQ tests

That's it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

17. I know some people that came in about 180.

None did very well by society's standards. They don't have patience with the bullshit. And they tend not to care one iota about their IQ. They read a lot and are endlessly curious.

[bluewater]

21. Oh, stop it! You're making me blush.

lol

[leftyladyfrommo]

23. One way you can tell them is they don't give a shit

about their IQ. They look at the universe and realize how little any of us really know. It's very humbling.

[StarfishSaver]

18. A professor once asked us a series of questions, one of which no one on the class could answer

He then gave us the answer to that question and asked us the questions again. As expected, we answered all of the questions correctly.

He then told us "those are questions from an IQ test. By giving you that answer, I just raised your IQ by one point."

He went on to explain that this was an illustration of the fact that IQ tests measure access to information, not innate intelligence.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. +1

[marie999]

20. I do very well on tests which is why I graduated high school.

I would be in the hall sleeping even after a good night's sleep and the teacher would have to wake me up to take the test. I don't know if this is true, it doesn't apply to me, if you smoke weed while studying for a test you should also be high when you take the test.