I am sure you’ve heard of an IQ test by now. They’re in lots of magazines, especially women’s magazines. Doing a web search will also find as many as you like. You simply fill in your answer to the tasks given in the test. Enter the answers and the site will respond with an estimated score. Neat and simple.

To start over, what is an IQ test really? And what’s the number mean? IQ is the ‘Intelligence Quotient’, a number telling how ’smart’ you are compared to other people. It may be used to see if you are likely to do well in some proffessions or in academic studies.

The whole idea of the IQ test is to measure the potential of your brains using problems posed to you on paper. What is measures is the ability to solve written problems. The raw test scores are then compared to other persons. It’s one of the standard methods to estimate human intelligence.

Taken over the whole population the average IQ score is 100. If you’ve taken an IQ test and you scored 136, this means you’re a lot more intelligent than the average person. Any score less than 100 indicates your intelligence level doesn’t match up to the average John Doe.

Advantages of the IQ Test

• Recruitment E.g. you like to hire someone for a position. You could get a better understanding of the applicant’s intelligence by conducting an IQ test. The test could be on logical, linguistic and spatial intelligence. This should be guided by the requirements for the type of work offered. A high score would indicate the candidate is well suited for the position. Some candidates who would probably not be able to do the work could be screened out this way.
• Academic admission IQ tests could complement the SAT in the judgement of a student’s intellectual potential. As there are often fewer places than applicants, this could be an additional screening tool. You could pick the cream of the crop from the high IQ scorers and send rejection slips to those who didn’t make the grade.

Negative sides of the IQ test

• IQ tests are far from infallible though Many people who score well in IQ tests may not perform well in real life situations. Quite a large share of high IQ persons are simply not as successful as you would expect from their IQ score.
• Not the most important success factor Many students with high IQ are a dissapointment when they hand in their term papers. Studies have found out that a student’s self-discipline is a better gauge of how well they’ll do at college or high school. Relying only on smartness is not enough you must put whatever IQ you have to work to do really well. Many high IQ scorers have been overtaken by so-called ‘weaker’ minds with much lower IQ.

• Many abilites are not measured by IQ testsFor example IQ tests can’t measure how well you’ll do as a leader. It doesn’t measure your emotional quotient or EQ – how you’ll get along with other people, including co-workers, superiors and peers. There is also the theory of multiple intelligences, that defines 8 different aspects of intelligence that you may have to varying degrees. So your IQ score may not be the only defining factor in your overall intelligence.