Do you think IQ test are a fraud???

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Do you think IQ tests are a fraud???

I do. I've been tested multiple times in my life, and it seems there's always a different answer. And the answer it seems is never quite what I expect compared to my abilities and accomplishments. Especially online IQ tests. I either never finish those because I can't concentrate in an online test taking environment well enough to complete it, or the one time I did finish it, it was 88. Needless to say people don't get physics degrees with an IQ of 88 (or do they??). I will point out I believe people read too much into what that number tells you. So an online IQ test told me I have an IQ of 88. I still got my BS in physics and I'm going to grad school for astrophysics. Well, I also had an official test that told me I have an IQ in the 150s.

Perhaps this should be branded "do you think online IQ tests are a fraud?" My point being there, I took just one, and it became a rough joke for me because it very nearly cut my IQ in half. Really, I think that unless you get an official IQ from a really experted professional, you aren't going to know anything close to the "actual" number, not that an actual number exists. Really this is one of those things where you're best off not knowing, unless you need to for some purpose. Its my firm belief that we are more limited by our hearts than our minds. The thing that makes an IQ test a fraud to me is how people use it... as some prophetic device to tell you your future. The IQ test is very rarely accurate, and even when it is, what does a number have to do with what I can do in the real world. Genius is made of what you do in your life... not what your potential is. Genius is the product of action, not the potential for action. There have been many geniuses who would be thought of as mentally challenged, but their actions broke through barriers. Likewise, what about the people with IQs off the charts who do nothing with their lives? IQ is meaningless in the real world.

I will simply sum up by saying that IQ is a fraud simply because it claims it can do something that it most certainly cannot. It claims it can tell you something about yourself. There is nothing that test can tell you about yourself, all it tells you are lies about who you are. You need to discover who you are through other means, not through tests, but through self searching. Look at yourself to find yourself. Don't let a test determine who you are, let you determine who you are.

IQ tests measure what they measure. They don't actually measure intelligence. I sometimes think the reason I test so well, and got high scores when I was a kid, is because I read so fast I have more time to actually think about the questions and I can get through more of them. What the tests really measure is test-taking ability. Unfortunately too many people and institutions take the scores to mean more than was ever intended when the tests were first devised.

I remember reading years ago (like in the 70s?) about how inner-city poor kids were scoring lower because they didn't recognize some of the illustrations in the test that had never been updated. One of the things they decided to change was the "telephone" illustration because so many kids had never seen a phone on a stick (You know the ones, I have only seen them in old movies) and were getting incorrect answers that lowered their scores. I think about then they started devising "culturally appropriate" tests. I wonder how that ever came out...Naturally some people were against "dumbing down", as they saw it, but it really didn't seem fair to penalize a kid who had never seen (whatever) for not correctly identifying it.

IQ tests just measure your ability to take IQ tests. Yeah, I know that is a flippant tautology but the point remains. There is an assumption that "intelligence" is this singular thing, which is wrong. "Intelligence" is like "Consciousness" or "God", a fuzzy word that everyone talks about but nobody can define. IMO the concept needs to be replace by a list of distinct cognitive aptitudes and skills.

My official IQ is 111. But I didn't know that until after I was diagnosed with AS as and adult. Before that, I took an online IQ test and scored around 140. I thought that's great. I worked on the test for like two hours and realized it was a timed test and I had gone way over the time limit . I believe IQ tests, when administered properly, are a fairly good tool, but there can be errors.

IQ tests can only be taken as a valid measurement of the abilities on the test (presuming the subject was motivated, alert, and healthy at the time a culturally and linguistically appropriate test was administered by a same-gender, same-race tester in a good environment) when they're used to measure the abilities of those whose abilities are within two standard deviations of the mean, and within one standard deviation of each other. It is also important to remember that the IQ on any given test is not exact because the test itself has uncertainty. You can say, "this test is valid", but that doesn't mean that the results are exact; they're not. Depending on how far from the average you are, there can be five, ten, or even fifteen points of uncertainty.

Beyond the 2 SD, they are more like a ballpark estimate. You may be able to say, "This person is probably developmentally delayed" or "This person is probably gifted," but an IQ test becomes less and less useful as the IQ goes further and further from the average. (Two standard deviations, on most IQ tests, is the range from 70 to 130.) There were fewer people at the extremes when they normed the test (obviously). And the more extreme your IQ is, the more unpredictable your performance tends to be, because the more atypical your development was/is. For high and low scores, there are also floor and ceiling effects.

Then there's the issue of scattered skills. An IQ test that shows a significant scatter can be used to show where the weak and strong points are; but with that scatter, the test becomes less valid because one ability affects other abilities and can either hide strengths or cover for weaknesses to the point that the subscores become less and less useful, and the overall IQ score more or less meaningless. This is a common situation with autism.

Bottom line: We put much too much emphasis on IQ. IQ tests are useful, and they are among the most well-established and thoroughly studied forms of psychological testing; but the IQ itself means less than we think it does. Ironically, it's the situations where we put the most emphasis on IQ--giftedness, developmental delay, and learning disability--where the IQ means the least.

I think that they measure what they measure, plain and simple.

Heck yeah, I think they're a fraud. When I was a kid in grade schooI I got really good IQ scores in almost every subject but math. I was especially good at reading and writing. I read a lot as a kid and learned all kinds of things that I stiill remember today. But math...the very word makes me shudder. My IQ score in math was pretty abysmal. But that doesn't mean I'm stupid. But I bet if I took a test online it would tell me I had the intelligence of a 5-year old because of it. Those things are a complete scam. Don't trust them, they are out to ruin your life!

I use a lot of emoticons, don't I? Well I like them, they're a great way to show how you feel when you can't say anything. The animated ones are especially cool.

I have tested about 85 on an official test. On another official test, I tested around 120. That is a deviation of 34 points. I've tested around seventy five to 160 on online tests as well. I don't think I.Q. tests are necessarily fraudulent, but they should not be used as a sole indicator of one's future education. People's intelligence or ability to learn and retain varies tremendously depending on many factors such as when a test is administered, the mood of the test taker, the health of the test taker, and many other factors. I also believe that the I.Q.'s of autistic people especially those of us on the middle or severe range of the spectrum cannot be accurately measured.

(Deliberate) fraud, no. Meaningless, yes.

A fraud as in they prove nothing, yes.

My IQ ranges anywhere from 90 to off the charts.

I think they are only useful as a gauge of your capabilities at the specific subjects presented in the manner they were.

Also test taking skills, I'm an excellent test taker due to being able to hold all the answers/question in mind in a sort of visual superposition of states, and it makes it really clear what the possible answers are, and usually what the right answer is.

So I take my IQ scores with a grain of salt, and try to avoid assigning too much weight to them.

I can't say for sure that I'm actually scoring in the top 5% because I'm actually really intelligent, or just because I'm a near savant level visual modeler of more moderate intelligence.

I voted yes, but I don't really think that they are a deliberate fraud, just that intelligence doesn't get measured scientifically, so anything that claims to do so is fraudulent.

The online IQ tests are nothing but bunk.

But official IQ tests that professional give can be a useful diagnostic tool. This is really dependent on the situation and IQ test involved.