Peter Brett's Blog

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Intelligence

I had a conversation with a friend of mine, where I made the point that I really don't like IQ tests because all they measure is how good you are at IQ tests. However, since I've never actually taken an IQ test in anger, I thought I'd take a few today to compare and contrast.Quite a range - I rest my case. While randomly surfing, I also discovered that my personality type is Visionary (Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking).
# posted by Peter at 21:19

Comments:

That's because they all grade on different scales! Come on, that's just like taking five different academic exams and being surprised that you didn'tg get the same mark on each.

There are lots of different types of IQ test that measure diferent types of intelligence. The Mensa test gave me two grades, one of which was in the 130s and the other in the 150s. And they let me in with those scores.

If two people were to take the same IQ test, then the matter is completely different.

I agree that IQ tests are not really an accurate measure of anything, but I don't think they're completely rubbish.
# posted by Blogger Lisa at 2:58 PM 
Okay, fair play. I had that coming, and you're quite correct. The point I was trying to make is that people who say, "Woot! I've got a higher IQ than you, ergo I must be more intelligent," are basing their comparison on a very subjective system of rating intelligence.

As an aside: I'm not very good at the verbal and numeric tests, but I excel at the spatial awareness and pattern matching stuff.
# posted by Blogger Peter at 9:54 PM 
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