Have you ever had an IQ test? Why?

[Winston Smith]

Please don't post your IQ.

I'm wondering how many Dopers have actually had an IQ test, and under what circumstances. The DIY web-based tests DO NOT COUNT, nor do the Armed Services Qualifiers &Etc.

I'm wondering about professionally-administered actual IQ tests.

Me? Nope. Not really.

[kayT]

In school. I think about 7th or 8th grade. Why? I have no clue. As far as I can remember, everyone in my grade had the test but I could be wrong.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

Every year my synagogue has an auction, and that year a local psychologist was offering a free I.Q. testing session. I guess my mom figured I'd be curious, and she bid on it, and I went.

[ZipperJJ]

I don't think so...I had to take some sort of test in 3rd grade to get into a special class but I do not know if it was an IQ test or not. It was probably more of a general aptitude test.

[Mr. Excellent]

Honestly, I'd be embarassed to get an IQ test. I practice disability law, and it hasn't taken long for me to begin thinking of IQ tests as the things you get to document that you're genuinely too dim to work.

I know it isn't so, of course - but my first thought on meeting someone who'd had an IQ test as an adult would probably be "What's wrong with you?"

[Kyla]

No, never been tested.

[MLS]

Yes, they did them routinely when I was in grammar school. I also took the Mensa qualifying test.

[jsgoddess]

Yes. I was given a number of IQ tests in junior high and high school. I don't know why and my parents were not informed until later.

[Alice The Goon]

I had to take one in 2nd grade to get into a special school.

[mack]

When I was in school a friend working on her psychology masters gave me one.

[Shagnasty]

I have taken four real ones starting when I was 7. My uncle is a child psychiatrist and his office partner was a child psychologist qualified to give a real IQ test (the Stanford-Binet IIRC). My family was curious and paid a reduced rate for me to take one. The next year, they started a special program at school that required a certain IQ which they knew I had because it used the same test as the first time so I took it again. I took psychometrics classes in undergraduate and grad school. I had to take them myself two more times and administer them to other people as well.

Real IQ tests are given one-on-one and take hours. They involve things like putting blocks together to match a pattern or answering reasoning problems allowed. If that doesn't sound familiar to someone, they probably haven't taken an official IQ test.

[Chronos]

I had a full barrage of psychological tests done between 6th and 7th grades, and I imagine an IQ test was probably among them. I don't specifically remember it, though, nor what the result would have been.

[olivesmarch4th]

Last year, I was a guinea pig for one of my husband's grad school colleagues at his request. In order to become qualified to administer the test professionally, he had to practice administering it to 10 people. Because he was a student, the results are technically invalid, but I suppose it's about as close to an accurate estimate as I'll ever get.

I thought it was great fun, especially the playing with blocks part.

It also taught me a lot about how arbitrary IQ tests are--in the ''word definitions'' portion I almost failed to correctly define ''apple.'' A lot of the questions asked were highly Eurocentric. But based on the results I would agree that it does do what it's meant to do -- predict how well you'll do academically.

[olivesmarch4th]

The next year, they started a special program at school that required a certain IQ which they knew I had because it used the same test as the first time so I took it again.
I'm curious, did you score higher the second time than the first time? I was told that any IQ test I take within 5 years after my last one is invalid, because not knowing the structure of the test is part of the test.

ETA--I didn't take the Weschler.

[Snowboarder Bo]

Yes, I have. I was tested in elementary and middle schools to see if I qualified for special class placement.

[olivesmarch4th]

I'm curious, did you score higher the second time than the first time? I was told that any IQ test I take within 5 years after my last one is invalid, because not knowing the structure of the test is part of the test.

ETA--I didn't take the Weschler.
Damn edit window! I mean I DID take the Wechsler, which is not the Stanford-Binet. The validity rules are perhaps a bit different.

[Superhal]

I'm curious, did you score higher the second time than the first time? I was told that any IQ test I take within 5 years after my last one is invalid, because not knowing the structure of the test is part of the test.


This is called the "test-retest reliability (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-retest_reliability)." On the SAT/TOEFL/GRE, it is said to account for about a 30 point swing in scores.

I've never taken one outside of web-based.

[Kyla]

A lot of the questions asked were highly Eurocentric.

Could you give some examples? Having never taken the test, I am curious.

I'd like to be tested, personally. I do wonder what it would say about me. I am extremely imbalanced in my abilities - I am very good at language-related subjects and very, very poor at math and whole collection of skill sets that feel related to math in my mind (I have a terrible sense of direction, I can't play strategy games, I can't remember the rules to games, I have a difficult time reading diagrams, music theory makes no sense to me, logic puzzles are incomprehensible to me, etc.), to the extent that I'm actually getting screened for learning disabilities next week. Let's just say that after spending a solid month studying math for the GRE, with maybe a couple hours put into looking over vocabulary words, I scored in 98th percentile on the verbal section and the 49th percentile on the math - and I was absolutely delighted with my math score, and it was really all I cared about.

Sometimes I think I'm some kind of idiot savant and I wonder what an IQ test would tell me.

[Busy Scissors]

I took the supervised mensa test last year - there were two, they were called something like Cattrell Culture-Fair test 1 and 2.

The first one was almost entirely English language based - I remember thinking that you needed really strong English to do well in it, so was unsure as to the 'culture fair' name. I guess fair as long as your culture speaks English - I'd be surprised if a non-native speaker could tackle it.

[ErinPuff]

I don't remember doing it, but apparently I took one to get into advanced classes in high school. I don't know my score.

[olivesmarch4th]

Could you give some examples? Having never taken the test, I am curious.

Let's just say that after spending a solid month studying math for the GRE, with maybe a couple hours put into looking over vocabulary words, I scored in 98th percentile on the verbal section and the 49th percentile on the math - and I was absolutely delighted with my math score, and it was really all I cared about.

Sometimes I think I'm some kind of idiot savant and I wonder what an IQ test would tell me.
Well, if I told you what the questions were exactly, it would ruin the validity of the test. But imagine they wanted to know things like who wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. There were questions about Western philosophy, Western literature, Western history and the like, but few references to history, events and literature in other parts of the world. I couldn't help but feel that portion of the test was biased toward well-read, well-educated people, thus punishing the non-educated for their ignorance rather than evaluating their raw intelligence.

I consider myself to be somewhat handicapped in math -- it will be my greatest hurdle should I choose to take the GRE. But I was very surprised to score quite well on the quantitative portion of the IQ test. I even did well on the story problems (which required a lot of mental math.) You may be surprised.

The portion that really dragged my score down overall was the coding and copying. I have terrible hand-eye coordination and my brain works rather slowly.

[ducati]

When I was in 2nd grade or so, I was a little ADD.
Folks had me tested this way and that. I remember astonishing the Dr. with my (correct) answers to some arcane questions.

Scored pretty high, so the next trip was to Mensa.

I think that was my peak. Life's just gone downhill ever since.:D

[JohnT]

I've had two.

One was because my uncle wanted to know my IQ. This test was when I was 14, 15 or so.

The other because my wife and I wanted to see who had the higher IQ. (There was a 2-point differential, btw). We were in our early to mid-20s.

[Khadaji]

I had one in college. My psych prof was doing research that linked the results to drawing that we made. I have no idea what the outcome was. I know that at one point I had the results of the test, but I don't recall them clearly, nor how they correlated to the drawings that I made. (I recall the number, but not the standard deviations.)

[PoorYorick]

My girlfriend was getting a graduate psych degree, so I was a guinea pig for her and all her psychometry colleagues. I took 'em all: Stanford Binet, WAIS, WISC-R, MMPI, TAT, Rorschach, etc. They never told me how I did, nor should they have. About the only response I ever got was when I asked how I did on the Stanford Binet, and she said, "Trust me, you don't have anything to worry about."

Although I admit I did screw with them a little on the Rorschach. "Two vaginas during sychronized swimming" indeed.

[Ludovic]

Yeah, I took one in order to get into a magnet/"gifted" school. So did my brother, in order to get into the same school. I'm not going to reveal what we got, but our mom did tell us the results, and we were the same. Exactly the same. I wonder if she told us that in order to not hurt anyone's feelings.

[RealityChuck]

In school. They never told us the scores, though I have seen that, according to other criteria, I'm Mensa eligible (shows how useless their standards are).

[Nzinga, Seated]

Honestly, I'd be embarassed to get an IQ test. I practice disability law, and it hasn't taken long for me to begin thinking of IQ tests as the things you get to document that you're genuinely too dim to work.

I know it isn't so, of course - but my first thought on meeting someone who'd had an IQ test as an adult would probably be "What's wrong with you?"


That is cracking me up.

By the way, I love the way the OP tried so hard to avoid posters just posting their sky high scores. I think the OP underestimates the creativity of a person that really wants to make their high score known, somehow.

I've never taken one that I know of, but I am interested to learn in this thread that it is a huge, hours long, one on one ordeal complete with props! I thought it was just a lil' paper test.

[Wargamer]

Yes.

As part of a study on genetics and ADHD, my family and I were tested to see if a link could be found.

[Baracus]

I have "taken" a number of various IQ and other type tests because my wife is a school psychologist and she needed a guinea pig. Other than that I don't recall taking any IQ tests even though I was in advanced programs in school.

[Voyager]

Yes, either in 6th or 7th grades. In 8th grade a kid in the front of the classroom noted that everyone had their IQ scores written in the teachers book. This was an honors class, so we might have been given it for placement. The school never told me officially, I don't know if they told my parents or not. Back in the early '60s this seemed pretty standard.

[silenus]

Like everybody else, in school. Kicked me into what was then called MGM (Mentally Gifted Minors) and is now called GATE (Gifted and Talented Education). No clue what the score was, other than it met the minimum.

[Drain Bead]

Twice that I can remember, both by psychologists--once when I was about four or five years old, and another before I went into the 7th grade.

[rhubarbarin]

I was tested at age 4 as part of a psych eval, cause I was crazy; a couple times at ages 10-11 or so, to see if I qualified for the school Gifted and Talented Program; and I think another one at around 13 when I was undergoing tests which ended in a diagnosis of ADD and a math disability. All were given to me one on one by psychologists. I think they were differents types of test, but don't remember/care to look up the details...

Could you give some examples? Having never taken the test, I am curious.

I'd like to be tested, personally. I do wonder what it would say about me. I am extremely imbalanced in my abilities - I am very good at language-related subjects and very, very poor at math and whole collection of skill sets that feel related to math in my mind (I have a terrible sense of direction, I can't play strategy games, I can't remember the rules to games, I have a difficult time reading diagrams, music theory makes no sense to me, logic puzzles are incomprehensible to me, etc.), to the extent that I'm actually getting screened for learning disabilities next week. Let's just say that after spending a solid month studying math for the GRE, with maybe a couple hours put into looking over vocabulary words, I scored in 98th percentile on the verbal section and the 49th percentile on the math - and I was absolutely delighted with my math score, and it was really all I cared about.

Sometimes I think I'm some kind of idiot savant and I wonder what an IQ test would tell me.

I could have written the first part of your post, same exact issues. From what I understand about intellectual ability and testing it's within the range of normal to have uneven intelligence, although it's certainly not the average. Most people tend to score within the same general ranges on different sections of a given test, but not people like us. My scores are all over the place and my total number is brought down quite a bit by my weak spots. And of course, it doesn't reflect that I am gifted in some areas and struggle more than the average person in others. People who are not neurotypical in various ways (ADD, autistic spectrum) are more likely to have pronounced strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes it's so extreme that they have a total IQ in the 'retarded' range despite impressive abilities in several areas - this is true of several very talented and educated autistic people I can think of.

Anyway, if you're curious, take one. They are kinda fun, and it might be useful for you to see exactly where/what your weaknesses are.

[dangermom]

I guess it wasn't professionally-administered--in college, my roommate was getting a master's in psychology and had to give some IQ tests, so she gave one to me. It was pretty fun.

[Redwing]

I took one in the second grade, part of whole suite of tests for various learning disabilities. I recall getting two scores back, one for verbal and one for mechanical. I couldn't tell you which parts were the IQ test, and which were something else, but there were two days of constant tests, and at least one or two follow up appointments.

Thinking about it now, I'm wondering how things were measured. A second grader who can't read in any meaningful way was shown to have an above average verbal IQ. That the test was able to compensate for my yet undiagnosed dyslexia, and even to help highlight it, still surprises me.

[JohnT]

That is cracking me up.

By the way, I love the way the OP tried so hard to avoid posters just posting their sky high scores. I think the OP underestimates the creativity of a person that really wants to make their high score known, somehow.


Exactly. I can think of 191 ways to make my score known, while my wife can think of only 189 ways...

;)

[HookerChemical]

I took one when I was seven or so to get into the gifted and talented program in elementary school. I don't know my exact score, nor have ever been interested. I'm now established in my professional career and haven't taken one since.

[Kolga]

My mom had me tested when I was something like four. I only vaguely remember it, but when I was in grad school getting trained in administering, scoring, and interpreting the Wechsler scales, some of the sub-tests triggered the memory, so I asked her about it. She said she had me tested because I was scaring her and she wanted to know what to do to best provide me with the intellectual stimulation I needed.

[KneadToKnow]

I took the WAIS-R in high school. My guidance counselor at one point decided that I needed to talk to the district psychologist, and apparently that's part of the standard workup they did to see if he was right. Must not have been, because I don't remember ever meeting that psychologist again.

[sachertorte]

First Grade.
Then the branding was complete.

[ShibbOleth]

Yeah, I took one in order to get into a magnet/"gifted" school. So did my brother, in order to get into the same school. I'm not going to reveal what we got, but our mom did tell us the results, and we were the same. Exactly the same. I wonder if she told us that in order to not hurt anyone's feelings.

My kids had to take one for the same reasons when we got to Florida (in Ohio there was some other basis for these classes) and you had to sign a release that said you wouldn't bother them later about the results.

My oldest did better on average (there was a quantitative and qualitative section. My son barely got the required score on the qualitative part although he was later able to make his school's math bowl team. My daughter, who got a higher qualitative score, never made the math team, although I suspect it's because she didn't try for it. Anyway, the scores pretty well reflect their strengths and weaknesses. She's balanced and good at most everything academically related. He works harder on the math and science stuff. He can read rings around her and has an incredible vocabulary.

I'm wondering if helped or hurt you to know your score? Obviously you know whether or not you get into the classes anyway. My kids have asked me a couple of times but I've never told them the results and have pretty much forgotten the exact results by now, just that they're both relatively smart but not super brainiacs. As to the OP, I don't recall every taking a serious IQ exam.

[ratatoskK]

They used to administer them all the time in public school, I guess every 2 or 3 years. So yes, I've had it done a bunch of times in that context. This would have been in the 60s and 70s.

[Jonathan Chance]

Several times in school, starting about second grade, to qualify for advanced classes. Then one senior year in high school for some sort of baseline survey that was being done.

Then when I was about thirty for a co-worker who was going after a Masters in something. Several of us did it for a project she was working on.

[panache45]

We were all tested in, I think, 5th or 6th grade (age about 11-12 or so). We were never told our scores.

Then in college I volunteered to participate in an extensive series of tests, over several weeks, including various IQ tests. This time we each got a print-out of all our scores.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Yes, junior high.

Why? Apparently, so my teachers and everybody could prove to me that I Was Not Living Up To My Potential.

I'm still not. Cause I'm lazy.

There was also the placement test that put me as the dumbest person in the room for my high-school years.

[Chronos]

Although I admit I did screw with them a little on the Rorschach. "Two vaginas during sychronized swimming" indeed. It's my understanding that a Rorschach test isn't so much based on what you say it looks like, as on why you say it looks like that. Are you looking at shapes? Colors? Parts of the image, or the whole thing? Things like that.

And bafflingly, the Firefox spellchecker recognizes doesn't recognize "vaginas".

[Wakinyan]

I'm Swedish and we had a compulsory military service which demanded every boy to suffer physical and psychological enrolment test (unsure about the terminology here, but I'm sure you get the picture); and one of them tests you did was concerning IQ.

Anecdotal
At that time in my life I was bloody fed up with school and authorities and whatnot and got tired of the IQ test half way through, WAG'd my way through it and handed in my papers first in "class".

I ended up in a combat control group where I felt I was supposed to be very smart with numbers and all, intepreting and delivering changing information from radar screens often in a very high tempo.

I still believe it was a mistake. I'm not smart with numbers. But I'm still curious what the IQ test showed. - If you wanted to know, you should have asked the pshychologist, but I didn't know that and never did. So I will never know.

But if I would guess, I scored terrible but ended up in the wrong place. Not that I screwed up, I got a fairly well developed intuition which also helped me through maths in school.

[Lanzy]

Took 3, all in school, 5th, 8th and 11th grades.

[interface2x]

I had to take one at a job interview right before I graduated college. Don't know how well I did, but I got offered the job. Declined, but not because of the test.

[PoorYorick]

It's my understanding that a Rorschach test isn't so much based on what you say it looks like, as on why you say it looks like that. Are you looking at shapes? Colors? Parts of the image, or the whole thing? Things like that.
And from my understanding, you're mostly right. I think it was the whole idea of swimming vaginas that made their interpretation interesting. I think it was Card II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test#The_ten_inkblots), which supposedly "can provide indications about how a subject is likely to manage feelings of anger or physical harm. This card can induce a variety of sexual responses." No telling how the testers interpreted my response, especially considering that they were beginners and not very sophisticated. It's been about 20 years, though.

[Miss Mapp]

I took one when I was in 1st or 2nd grade; it was just me, not the whole class. From what I remember of it, I think now it was the Stanford Binet. I also think they were considering moving me up a grade, but that didn't happen.

I took another IQ test much later on in college--the Weschler Adult Intelligence Standard this time.

[Kyla]

My oldest did better on average (there was a quantitative and qualitative section. My son barely got the required score on the qualitative part although he was later able to make his school's math bowl team. My daughter, who got a higher qualitative score, never made the math team, although I suspect it's because she didn't try for it.

Did you get this backwards? Quantitative = mathy stuff. Qualitative = um, not mathy stuff.

[Little Nemo]

Once in high school and once in college. It was a class assignment in both cases.

[Taomist]

I grew up in Chicago-land, and the school system had yearly, week-long, district-wide tests for all students, to determine where they were personally regarding various subject matter. It was great, and I was able to take advanced studies in those areas I was good at. I've heard teachers hate the 'tracking' system, as I believe it's called, but my public school experiences after that were so unchallenging that I literally learned not a single thing after leaving the Chicago system. One of the results of those tests was that your IQ was determined.

I am pretty sure mine has only gotten lower as I've aged. :p

[OpalCat]

I had one administered when I was 11 or 12. Not sure why, my mom just had me tested. I remember the part I thought was the hardest was being read a string of numbers and having to repeat them backwards.

[glowacks]

I took as IQ test a month or so ago as part of a job search program through the state of Michigan. This thread has triggered the memory that WAIS was written somewhere on the test materials; I cannot verify the authenticity of that memory though. I have not received the results yet.

I'm fairly sure that I was tested as a very young child, because my parents knew to find good educational opportunities for me.

[Student Driver]

I was tested in a private religious elementary school, I want to say around 3rd grade or so. I was pulled out of classes for a few hours every day for a couple of weeks, and spent the time with some guy in the teacher's lounge, taking weird tests; the aforementioned block tests (recreate this asymmetric pattern of stripes with this set of painted blocks), sorting wordless panels of a comic strip into chronological order, etc. I remember that a lot of the tests he administered were the same as tests that psychologists at my mom's job (at a mental health center) administered. I also recalled being absolutely baffled at some of the tests, completely guessing at an answer, and getting startled/thrilled responses from the tester. It definitely wasn't a blind test, and I do feel that in some ways I was "guided," like Clever Hans, to come to the correct answer based on social/body language cues.

Got a letter in the mail a few weeks later quoting some absurdly high number and recommendations for advanced schooling that my school promptly ignored. And, AFAIK, IQ tends to fall over time, so I've not been too keen to be retested.

[flodnak]

Yes, in second grade, to see if I qualified for the gifted program. I wasn't told ahead of time what it was, in fact I didn't learn about it until my mother happened to bring it up when I was a teenager. The school psychologist (who had been talking with me for months about some other issues) just told me she wanted me to meet a friend of hers - I assume he was another psychologist connected with the school district or intermediate unit, and that she wasn't qualified to give a proper IQ test but he was. He had some unusual toys with him and I interpretted the whole thing as a game.

[Rushgeekgirl]

I had to be tested to qualify for CLUE classes when I was in elementary school. They only allowed students with IQ of 130 or above to participate.

[Sunspace]

Never been formally tested. I'm curious what mine would come out as though; I suspect my intelligence is very uneven.

[sunstone]

Yes, back in the 50s, me and my entire immediate family were tested. Apparently we were part of a study on the inheritance of IQ - I don't remember if it was UCLA or USC.

[ultrafilter]

Yes, when I was in first or second grade and having trouble with school. I ended up being diagnosed with ADD (ADHD at the time), and they wanted to make sure that I wasn't retarded.

[olivesmarch4th]

Yes, back in the 50s, me and my entire immediate family were tested. Apparently we were part of a study on the inheritance of IQ - I don't remember if it was UCLA or USC.
That sounds interesting. Do you know what the findings were?

[alice_in_wonderland]

Twice - once in grade school for placement in a special program and once in University as part of a study.

[Sonnenstrahl]

For the people who say that true tests are given one-on-one - what are the paper tests that we took in school, then? (That sounds like I'm challenging you, "You calling my IQ test not real?" but I'm really just curious.)

I assume I had some kind of intelligence test. In grade three we all did one or two written tests, then the people who did well met with a psychologist. In what could be read as a premonition of my entire life so far, I did fine on the written test but failed the oral. :)

[BigT]

The only official test I've had was administered by my (previoous) psychologist. It apparently had different portions, as I scored lower on some sort of motor IQ, and this is actually one of the symptoms of OCD.

And, yes, it was one-on-one. The other tests are still tests, but they really aren't designed for individuals--they're designed for quick grading for a bunch of people in a group. The one-on-one tests are more accurate.

I'd be listing the paper tests if I'd ever taken one, as I still think they have some validity.

[Mr. Krebbs]

I took my IQ test a few months after beginning therapy (22 years old) out of personal curiosity. I do not remember which test I took.


A lot of the questions asked were highly Eurocentric.

Could you give some examples? Having never taken the test, I am curious.

I specifically remember being asked who wrote Faust and the reasons behind the whole "freedom of the press" concept. I also had to interpret old adages such as "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Though not Eurocentric, I was also asked questions that require an education to answer: I believe I was asked the speed of light and circumference of the earth or similar.

Those questions are only a small portion of the test however, so I don't think I spoiled it for you.

[gaffa]

Several times. In 6th grade as part of the regular school testing of the time, but that was also when I had my absolute worst teacher, Mrs. Smith, who decided that I was too "disruptive" (i.e. asking questions) and made me sit in the book storage room. But I learned far more by reading the books in the book storage room than I ever could have learned from that incompetent bitch. The results of that test determined that, yes, I was not living up to my "potential".

Junior High was pretty bad as well, though having a lot of different teachers meant that opinions about my "potential" were very wide ranging.

Before they would let me into High School, I spent a week being given a huge array of intelligence tests, as well as various medical ones. The results were never shared with me, but did result in the city paying for my tuition at an "alternative" school where I did far better (and didn't get beaten up on a regular basis).

I'm 49, and I imagine that if I had gone through the school system twenty years later, I would have been very thoroughly drugged up.

Since escaping the educational system, I've discovered I can learn anything I wish, very quickly. That has defined my entire career - get interested in something and learn enough to qualify as an expert.

[Clothahump]

My senior year in high school, they administered IQ tests across the board. The next week, they came back and gave a different, more difficult test to a smaller group. Each week that repeated with the group getting smaller and smaller. We got down to me and one other person for two weeks, then the last week it was just me. Then no more.

About a month after the last test, I got the score. But per the OP's request, it shall remain a secret.

[A Dodgy Dude]

I took the entrance test for Mensa about 12 years ago.

[SCSimmons]

I was given a long, involved intelligence test by a child psychologist when I was ~10, in conjunction with the therapy I was undergoing. I do not know which test or what the result was.

[Shagnasty]

My senior year in high school, they administered IQ tests across the board. The next week, they came back and gave a different, more difficult test to a smaller group. Each week that repeated with the group getting smaller and smaller. We got down to me and one other person for two weeks, then the last week it was just me. Then no more.

About a month after the last test, I got the score. But per the OP's request, it shall remain a secret.

I knew about that and I am sorry you had to go through all the hoops. They told me that they had to have an alternate in place in case I was intentionally poisoned or something.

[Student Driver]

For the people who say that true tests are given one-on-one - what are the paper tests that we took in school, then? (That sounds like I'm challenging you, "You calling my IQ test not real?" but I'm really just curious.)

Sounds like some kind of achievement test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achievement_test). Way before No Child Left Behind, my school had these kinds of tests every year; they took a full week to administer, and they were quite comprehensive. I suppose they could be used as personal IQ tests of some sort, but they seem to be more of a diagnostic check of the school.

[Kyla]

Sounds like some kind of achievement test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achievement_test). Way before No Child Left Behind, my school had these kinds of tests every year; they took a full week to administer, and they were quite comprehensive. I suppose they could be used as personal IQ tests of some sort, but they seem to be more of a diagnostic check of the school.

Yeah, those of us who grew up in California had to take the CBEST. The scores we got back were nothing like an IQ score, though, we got rated in percentiles in different subjects. My scores were always like the GRE score I've already mentioned - I would score in the 99th percentile in all of the verbal things and then in the 50th percentile in math.

[TimeWinder]

Yes, the WAIS (that's the one with the black & white blocks, yes?) when I was was in college. It was part of documentation for a learning disability (and extremely effective at showing it, since the WAIS has a number of subsections that discern various sub-abilities. One of my subscores was vastly out of line with the rest of the test). It was one on one, and extremely hard to schedule, as I recall, since we had to find a specialist of some kind to administer it.

[Sonnenstrahl]

Sounds like some kind of achievement test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achievement_test). Way before No Child Left Behind, my school had these kinds of tests every year; they took a full week to administer, and they were quite comprehensive. I suppose they could be used as personal IQ tests of some sort, but they seem to be more of a diagnostic check of the school.

I'm not sure if that's the case. They were aptitude-like tests - if you rotated this shape, what would it look like, which comes next in the pattern, etc. We weren't prepared for them at all. I think, looking at other responses, that they were aptitude tests but probably designed more to pick out the "smartest" kids in the class for further testing, rather than to identify gifted children with certainty. In the end, I suspect that "gifted" more often means that one was above a certain percentile in the class/district, rather than being some kind of objective measurement.

[Student Driver]

I'm not sure if that's the case. They were aptitude-like tests - if you rotated this shape, what would it look like, which comes next in the pattern, etc. We weren't prepared for them at all. I think, looking at other responses, that they were aptitude tests but probably designed more to pick out the "smartest" kids in the class for further testing, rather than to identify gifted children with certainty. In the end, I suspect that "gifted" more often means that one was above a certain percentile in the class/district, rather than being some kind of objective measurement.

You are probably correct, though there was a whole day of such "what pattern is this 2.5D shape when unfolded or turned" questions in our standardized tests. I still have no idea how or why I was selected for IQ testing, but your supposition seems likely. I probably got tagged through an achievement test and then got tested further, luckily on my school's dime. I just wish they'd done something with it.

[olivesmarch4th]

I knew about that and I am sorry you had to go through all the hoops. They told me that they had to have an alternate in place in case I was intentionally poisoned or something.
Shagnasty for the win!

[don't ask]

Everyone at school had one sometime between 4th and 6th grade. We all had another in 7th grade. Me and a few other guys had several extra ones after that. I think about 9th grade they stopped testing us.

[kambuckta]

The fact that I was a failing student at one of the dumbest schools in our state at the time alerted my mum that something was somewhat amiss. I took an IQ test and rated up in (depending on the 'aptitudes') between the 94th and 99th percentiles. She transferred me to a smart school straight away. I got all bolshy and transferred back to me' old school.

I regret it now. :D

[Perciful]

I had one to find out what might be a good career for me when I was out of high school. It was good in that it showed me my areas of strength and weakness and what jobs matched my talents.

I got into a tech school and work was fun for me. It was a good match for my skills.

[MsWhatsit]

I had one to find out what might be a good career for me when I was out of high school. It was good in that it showed me my areas of strength and weakness and what jobs matched my talents.

I got into a tech school and work was fun for me. It was a good match for my skills.


This sounds more like a career aptitude test than an IQ test.

To answer the thread, I had an IQ test in grade school, same as a lot of other people.

[Oregon sunshine]

Once at age five because I knew all the subjects in first grade prior to getting there (they let me skip that grade), and again at age nine.

[pravnik]

Two in elementary school, one from a psychology grad student who lived across the street, one from a psychologist who was a friend of my parents.

[nuggz]

I had an iq test a few years ago because I opted to take part in a study for University of Michigan... The result wasn't: You have an IQ of 140!, instead, it was a percentile ranking based on catergory.

So, say there were 10 catergories (I can't remember exactly), I could rank anywhere from 1% (worst) to 100% (best), 50%, I assume, being average.

Some of the catergories I sucked in... like 3rd percentile bad. Others I excelled in, like 98 percentile.

I did some referencing online and gained a ballpark idea of what my IQ is, based on the average percentile I had per each catergory.

I have no idea if I'm right, though. ;)

[sunstone]

In reply to Olivesmarch4th's question about the IQ study that my family participated in back in the 50s......

Yes, the study showed that there is an interplay of genetics and environment. So if you have the genes for a high IQ, in the best situation the genes will be fully expressed. On the other hand if you have the genes for a high IQ, in a poor environment, you will wind up smart, but not as smart as those with the better environment. And a similar relationship exists for those with genes that allow for a lower IQ.

Nothing new now, but at the time, Nature/Nurture was not well understood.

And our family (Mom, Dad, two sons) learned our IQ scores. I'm sure that wouldn't happen if the study was conducted today.

[olivesmarch4th]

In reply to Olivesmarch4th's question about the IQ study that my family participated in back in the 50s......

Yes, the study showed that there is an interplay of genetics and environment. So if you have the genes for a high IQ, in the best situation the genes will be fully expressed. On the other hand if you have the genes for a high IQ, in a poor environment, you will wind up smart, but not as smart as those with the better environment. And a similar relationship exists for those with genes that allow for a lower IQ.

Nothing new now, but at the time, Nature/Nurture was not well understood.

And our family (Mom, Dad, two sons) learned our IQ scores. I'm sure that wouldn't happen if the study was conducted today.
That's cool, thanks for sharing. It fits with some recent research I read about the way impoverished children's brains don't develop properly thus limiting their intellectual capacity.


I had an iq test a few years ago because I opted to take part in a study for University of Michigan...
Hey I'm a Michigander (transplanted to East Coast) and attended University of Michigan. Are you/were you a student there?

[Lute Skywatcher]

In school. I think about 7th or 8th grade.Likewise, though I think a bit later in my case.I don't remember doing it, but apparently I took one to get into advanced classes in high school. I don't know my score.I was offered advanced classes after mine but I don't think that was the reason behind the test.

[Anaamika]

I also took one in school. It had to be past age 7 or 8, because I remember it fairly clearly, but not enough to remember exactly when.

[Lust4Life]

I was tested in junior school, senior school and when I joined the armed forces .

[HeadNinja]

Helped a friend in grad school by being their test subject. Most of our friend group did too.