I was just wondering how come so many people know their IQ.
I took an IQ test once in school when I was having … um an “attitude problem”. She said it was just to get feeling for what was going on in my head. But she absolutly wouldn’t tell me what the score was, and said no reputable psychologist would tell anybody what they scored. Is that true or was she just protecting me from the fact I have the brains of a potato. Everybody else I meet seems to know exactly what their score was(although it seems that everybody is at least 124, with a suprising fact that it seems about 20 percent of the people I meet have IQ of 180 or better :)) so I’m wondering if people really know(truly tested not web based stuff)or if they just make something up.
I’m pretty sure you can go take a test through MENSA, though I never have.
I had the same experience with the school IQ test; they wouldn’t tell me the results. In fact, they didn’t even tell me it was an IQ test when I was taking it. I didn’t find out I had taken one until years later.
check the Mensa threads they say how to get IQ from other scores, like SATs
If you have taken the SAT lately, look at your composite score. The average is approximately 1000, so subtract 1000 from your score. Divide the difference by 200, which is (approximately) the standard deviation. Multiply the result by 16 (or 15, depending on which IQ scale you’re using). Add this number to 100, and this is your IQ. (This assumes your SAT score is over 1000.) This is only approximate, since SAT scores change from year to year.
Example: Your SAT score is 1250. Subtract 1000 to make 250 and divide by 200 to make 1.25. Multiply by 16 to make 20 and add 100 to make 120. This is your IQ.
Alternately, you can visit Queendom and take the on-line IQ test. Theirs is one of the better ones on the web.
I’m sorry to say Queendom no longer gives test results in IQ points. There are other tests on the web the do give such scores but I don’t know of one right now that I can recommend. Mensa has an on-line test but would have to recommend against it.
When I took the tests for Mensa, they gave us two IQ tests and another test, a memory test. They gave us the scores on all of them.
I’ve also been tested in other situations. If you go back to your school NOW, as an adult, I think that they have to show you your records, if they still have them.
How about other standardized tests like the GMAT? I’ve read on some boards that attaining 98% percentile on the GMAT and certain other tests automatically qualifies one for MENSA membership.
I got mine tested in sixth grade for qualification in advanced classes. My folks wouldn’t tell me the number for fear it’d go to my head. I found out from school records, and sure enough, I told several people. What an idiotic thing that was to do. Great way to alienate people. At least I learned a lesson from it.
I only wish that others could learn the same lesson. Occasionally you see postings here where someone says “I have an IQ of 275, and I say blah-blah.” If the person is right, they look like a jerk. If they’re wrong (which is not uncommon), they look like an idiot.
Mensa’s cutoff for the GMAT is the 95[sup]th[/sup] percentile, presumably because the people who take that test are of above-average IQ. Some other common tests accepted are the SAT, GRE, LSAT, and MAT. See babcom.
Like billiehunt said. IQ is a lousy measure of intelligence, anyway… True intelligence will show through to the people you’re dealing with, without you having to specifically tell them how smart you are. Ever see Cecil publishing his IQ? Does not knowing his IQ cast any doubt on how smart he is?
And just to throw another monkey wrench into the IQ works…
When I took it in JR High I scored in the 120s.
When I took an IQ test in HS I scored in the high 130s.
When I took an IQ test 5 years after leaving college I scored in the upper 160s.
If this keeps up I expect to solve all the worlds problems by the time I’m 50.
All standardized tests are suspect. I’ve never felt dumb or anything and I’ve always been “advanced” in my course work if you know what I mean and I think you do. However, my true talent appears to be the ability to solve standardized tests.
'When I took an IQ test 5 years after leaving college I scored in the upper 160s. ’
IQ tests reflect your intelligence based on someone of similar age. 100= same age.
Thus, when you are 50 & have one of 200, you’ll have an intelligence of a 100 year old person 
I took a generic IQ test in high school. Apparently I did quite well. I was asked to be retested in a controlled environment. They told me my score at that time. Several Mensa representatives (recruiters) approached me and also revealed my score to me (apparently the testers are not required to keep this information confidential). No one felt the need to withhold this information from me, however I thought it was odd that my parents were not told my actual score - only that it was very high…
Doghouse wrote:
I wouldn’t put too much faith in this estimate. Firstly, IQ tests and Scholastic Aptitude Tests try to measure different things. Secondly, this formula maxes out at an IQ of 148. Thirdly, this results in a substantially lower ‘effective’ score than my ‘actual’ Stanford-Binet results.
Just for the record, that wasn’t me–I asked the followup question about the GMAT. I don’t put much stock into standardized tests as a measure of intelligence either; I just wanted to confirm that I could get into MENSA if I wanted to. (Imagine a smiley here if you must.)
DHR
JoeyBlades is right. I should have mentioned that the SAT is not intended by its makers to be an intelligence test. However, the score can be used as a proxy for IQ (Mensa does so). The SAT and IQ tests, in general, measure the same sorts of things (more or less). Even two relatively well-designed tests that are intended to measure IQ won’t necessisarily give the same results.
Oops! Sorry Doghouse. I got confused when I was cut’n pasti’n.
My IQ was tested also in the 6th grade. The reason? They thought I had a serious learning disability, and was supposed to be in the “booster class”. After the test, no one told me what was up for a few weeks, but strangely enough no one put me in the special class. I didn’t know anything until the daughter of the psychologist who gave the tests, who happened to be in the same grade as me, was playing with me at recess and said:
“You don’t seem so smart. My Daddy said you’re the smartest kid in the whole school district.”
What a way to find out. I was retested several times over several years, and didn’t have to take the Mensa test to get in because most alternate tests they accepted put me in the 99.5 percentile. Whoopee.
Anthracite,
I have an identical story to tell. I mean, really identical, only in my case it was a son and not a daughter who told me. And it was even 6th grade. Bizarre.
I haven’t heard that one before, but I do know that IQ test scores have been rising steadily for unknown reasons:
Whew! I sure am glad I held back on my thoughts about Mensa and it’s membership… I might have offended someone.
This is funny on so many levels, yet I sense that I still don’t really get it…
How do people know their IQ? As has been echoed here, somebody leaked a test result. The problem is that not all IQ tests are the same. They don’t use the same scales, and many don’t even use the same theoretical rationale. A good case in point is the Wechsler family of intelligence tests. There’s the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). Students frequently get the WISC in grade school or early junior high school. Although the scale used by the two tests is the same (statistically speaking, that is), the rationale is different. The WISC compares your level with others of your own age. The more advanced you are compared to the average kid in your age group, the smarter you are (this is somewhat of an oversimplification, but you get the gist). The WAIS, however, is different. It’s more of an absolute scale, independent of age. Yet, both tests give you plain IQ numbers that look like they mean the same thing.
So, you see lots of people in their 20s and 30s spouting off about how they have an IQ of 140. Many of them, however, got that number from the WISC they took as a kid. The WISC scores don’t even apply anymore once you reach adulthood. If they took the WAIS instead, the IQ would almost certainly be different. Saying you got an IQ score of 140 as a kid could just as easily be rephrased “I was a smart kid, precocious even”. But that’s it. It doesn’t say much about current ability (BTW, Stanford-Binet scores are the same way).
Another popular source of confusion: The ASVAB. This is the Armed Forces test that (at least when I was in school) was required before graduation. It measures at least 9 different things (I can’t remember the exact number). Not all of the scales are related to intelligence, and none of them are direct measures of it. But, you can calculate an IQ score by combining three scales into one composite score. The confusion comes in when you try to compare ASVAB scores with Wechsler scores (or any other test, for that matter). The Wechsler has an average score of 100. The ASVAB, on the other hand, has an average score of 150. Thus, if Joe Average takes both tests, he’ll get a 100 on the former and a 150 on the latter. As you can see, a test score can’t be interpreted unless you know which test it was and what scale it uses.
Military recruiters occasionally tell kids what their ASVAB scores are. “You got a 150! We want you to sign up now!” The kid, who has always heard that 150 is extremely high, now thinks he’s much smarter than he actually is, and never suspects that in reality he’s completely average. I have a friend who thinks this to this day, and I’ve never had the heart to tell him that his interpretation of the 150 is hogwash.
This has been a very long-winded way of answering the original question by saying that if someone tells you their IQ, ask them which test they took. If they don’t know, take it with a grain of salt.