Do you think IQ test are a fraud???
I DID have several in school, and thought it was almost as standard as general health checks. I'm from the US. I think I was in private school that whole time. The last one was in the early 1970s.
Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 22 Aug 2011, 4:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I don't think they're a fraud, but people give them more significance than they should be.
It's a test of your ability to do specific things. It tests that and gives you a score. Sometimes the test results are accurate, sometimes they are biased (ex. I'm pretty sure I have a better short term memory score than an IQ test reports me having - testing my short term memory with numbers doesn't work well because I can't help but try to find patterns in the numbers so I don't need to remember them, only the pattern rather than remembering them).
I am in the US and I didn't have any IQ tests in school. The only one I've had was part of my diagnosis.
I remember a mandatory middle school one. I believe it's not legal here to do this now. And when you applied for a job, as in a job service- placement program, the state agency 'gave you one.' This was years ago, and I know this is not legal now, to do. I'm not sure about the military, now, though.
I remember eating out with my wife's friends, and her friend's spouse asked me: "I''m guessing your IQ is around 130 - mine is 115?" He was in late 30's @ the time, and this one example shows this pervasive IQ mindset.
There's a huge mindset difference between Italy and US regarding IQ. I didn't ask before because I didn't want to be tactless. I wouldn't accept to be defined by a number, even if it's 150. It creates an expectation on one's performance and creates anxiety. The truth is what people accomplish in life, so they were right to eliminate it.
It is STUPID to believe that IQ by itself can mean ANYTHING! And in the US you see comedies ALL THE TIME about how the smartest kid in school gets the lowest IQ score, and the smartest gets the highest score. On that episode of "Facts of life" the smartest kid quit trying, and got LOW grades. All the people went to the the kid with the highest IQ score, and asked questions and she said she was NOT the smart. In the end, charlotte rayes character took an IQ test with the principal, since the principal said IQ tests were PERFECT. HE GAVE UP! ANOTHER show had one kid graded with a high IQ because of a testing machine failure. Anyway, even the smartest person on the planet, that has never built an engine before will likely assemble an engine FAR slower than a low IQ mechanic that has done it for years. IQ isn't everything. On the other hand, a truly smart person may be able to figure out, and build that engine with no plans, and the mechanic, if they had no experience, might not be able to.
Cognitive ability: IQ: Is like the quantity of tools you have in a tool box to do a job.
It is no great secret that some folks have more long term memory, greater working memory, spatial-mathematical ability, and some have much less in comparison. All things being equal, the former has more muscle to do the (more) work.
Just as some people are handsome & not so, have more physical protential,etc. The brain is no different.
The great debate was (is?) : Do IQ tests actually capture these differences in cognitive ability or true potential on a mere piece of paper? Is this "state" alterable with practice, (as egalitarian societies wish it to be - "everyone is equal")? If this is all true, what does this potential translate into the real world?
Yes I think iq test are false. When I took the IQ test in middle school. My results were boarded line ret*d and it made no sense what so ever because I my average GPA was 3.80, an honor student and I have a great memory.
But there is another IQ test that deals with multiply intelligence. It's more accurate sense no one is the same in learning.
I think they're not designed for aspies. The ones I've done online (which of course are probably unreliable) expect my brain to work in a given way and it just doesn't. That goes for personality ones too, such as the inkblot psychological test. Without fail, I see an inkblot. No butterflies, no tortoise/helmet, no insects, just an inkblot.
My official IQ is 70 with no known ill effects. I have a quote that "At 70 IQ a member of the species homo sapiens is so mentally and morally deficient it cannot be held fully responsible for its actions". I seem to manage.
I have a PhD in Membrane Biophysics and I have published over 70 papers in International journals.
Why do I have an IQ of 70?
Others have noted that the patient (victim) has to co-operate. IQ tests assume the subject is co-operating but what if they are not? That explains a lot of the low scores of the underclass, conscripts and native peoples etc.
When I had my first IQ test at 10 I was not even told what IQ stood for and my parents were not asked for permission for me to be tested (It is a medical procedure and so I think that that was obscene even for the 1960s). All I was told was that I would be sent away to special school. I did not like the sound of that so I threw the test. I was tested again when I was 12, 15 and 17. By the second one I knew what the IQ test was for and my contrarian character had emerged. I had no intention at all of co-operating. Those who had co-operated were told they had a high IQ and were harassed for not working hard enough. I was left alone.
In Australia the IQ test was supposed to be confidential but it was an open secret: to some but not others. I was never actually told what mine was. I saw it on my official highschool record card looking over a teachers shoulder. I also saw a comment "70! You have got to be joking" by some teacher.
In my professional life I see useless book smarts all the time. I am convinced that many middle class kids simply act as if they are smart because they have been trained to act as if they were smart all their lives. Whether they actually are is another matter. You can certainly train up a kid to do well in IQ tests.
I am one of those people who looks as thick as a brick. Useful when dealing with salesmen. Sometimes it causes trouble professionally and at international borders. I worked as a post-doctoral in the US for several years. One customs official could not reconcile my looks and my J-1 Visa to work as a post-doctoral in Biochemistry at Cornell. He found a young officer who asked me to explain how mitochondria made ATP. After I did he let me through.
Reading the average online community when the subject of IQ comes up, you'd thnk every single member was a genius.
I think some of it has to do with smarter people being more likely to post their score. Some of it may be exaggeration.
I have a PhD in Membrane Biophysics and I have published over 70 papers in International journals.
Why do I have an IQ of 70?
Others have noted that the patient (victim) has to co-operate. IQ tests assume the subject is co-operating but what if they are not? That explains a lot of the low scores of the underclass, conscripts and native peoples etc.
When I had my first IQ test at 10 I was not even told what IQ stood for and my parents were not asked for permission for me to be tested (It is a medical procedure and so I think that that was obscene even for the 1960s). All I was told was that I would be sent away to special school. I did not like the sound of that so I threw the test. I was tested again when I was 12, 15 and 17. By the second one I knew what the IQ test was for and my contrarian character had emerged. I had no intention at all of co-operating. Those who had co-operated were told they had a high IQ and were harassed for not working hard enough. I was left alone.
In Australia the IQ test was supposed to be confidential but it was an open secret: to some but not others. I was never actually told what mine was. I saw it on my official highschool record card looking over a teachers shoulder. I also saw a comment "70! You have got to be joking" by some teacher.
In my professional life I see useless book smarts all the time. I am convinced that many middle class kids simply act as if they are smart because they have been trained to act as if they were smart all their lives. Whether they actually are is another matter. You can certainly train up a kid to do well in IQ tests.
I am one of those people who looks as thick as a brick. Useful when dealing with salesmen. Sometimes it causes trouble professionally and at international borders. I worked as a post-doctoral in the US for several years. One customs official could not reconcile my looks and my J-1 Visa to work as a post-doctoral in Biochemistry at Cornell. He found a young officer who asked me to explain how mitochondria made ATP. After I did he let me through.
Most papers nowadays are available online for purchase. Can you send me a link to your published papers?
LtlPinkCoupe
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I've never had an IQ test done professionally, but I would say to take the online-based ones with a grain of salt...usually those online tests are just one-off, just-for-fun things.
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I have taken both official IQ tests and the online tests. There is a huge difference between the two. Online tests are stupid because they don't test all areas of intelligence (well neither does the official IQ test for that matter) but on the official one I scored between 78-85. On the online tests I scored between 110-130. I believe the real one is more accurate. I have taken official IQ tests many times throughout my life and remained relatively consistent (only deviating a few points). Mine has told my future, it depends on the person whether its "real" or not. I have no job. I don't drive. I can't figure out things quickly or at all. While everyone around me sees the solution, I am struggling. I have no future due to my Borderline Intellectual Functioning. Sometimes when people first meet me they see and feel that I might be a genius. It is because I talk about my special interest, abnormal psychology. I never even went to school for it. Self taught. At the same time in school I have been called "stupid" by many people including the teachers. It depends on who if I am called "stupid" or "genius." Usually nothing in between. My reading comprehension is poor. But I can read the words obviously when I am not having the stupid symptom that I see the words completely wrong. Literally SEE them as a different word, then after a few seconds it changes to the correct word. Same with hearing. I do know however that I did get around a 3.8 GPA both in college (just a two year community college) and high school. But the ONLY reason why I got so high is remedial classes. I never had an AP class. Special ed for most of my classes. On one of the IQ tests I have taken it said and I quote, "The IQ is accurate and this is the reason why we believe she is in remedial classes." Then it followed by saying, "The anxiety and depression did not affect the IQ score all that much, we see this as an accurate representation of her general intelligence."
IQ tests are not perfect, but they're nevertheless a decent approximation of intelligence, as well as a necessary tool to determine what diagnosis to put on someone. You'll rarely see "intelligent" people get IQ scores in the BIF range (71-85)--or stupid people with an IQ of 120. Having said that, a person with an IQ of 160 doesn't necessarily hold an upper-hand against someone with an IQ of 120 in for example mathematics.
I "outsmart" Richard Feynman with more than 20 IQ points and Garry Kasparov by almost 15 IQ points, but I'll never have the impact on theoretical physics like the former--nor will I ever become a better chess player than the latter.
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I don't think IQ tests are invalid or fraudulent, but I don't think it's good idear to read too much into them, like they determine what you can and can't do in life. But it can be useful to know what are your areas of relative strength and weakness. For some task, there are usually many ways to approach it, and knowing what own brain is good at and bad at will help put self on right path for self instead of wasting time and effort doing something the way that majority does it due to different brain function profile of majority.
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I've taken a couple of official IQ tests.
One said I had an IQ of 148 (a MENSA one), and the other said it was 113.
What i found with the 2 tests I did is that they relied upon learnt knowledge; which has nothing to do with intelligence.
In my opinion 'Intelligence' is the ability to learn and interact with the external environment WITHOUT any former knowledge/3rd party guidance.
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We, the people on the Autistic Spectrum have a choice.
We can either try to "fit in" with the rest of society, or we can be so egocentric that we can't be bothered.
I choose the actor. I observe NT's. I listen to their socializing. I practice it, so in social situations I can just emulate/mimic what is expected.
It isn't natural for me, but it enables me to "fit in".
It is VERY tiring and draining, but at least we can appear like them even though it is an act. Like being on the stage.
They can't see it is emulation, and so we are accepted.