# Question about IQ Tests

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-iq-tests/231542>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 27, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-iq-tests/231542 "2004-02-27T22:56:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-iq-tests/231542/21 "2004-02-29T19:15:35Z")

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> [@ianzin](#):
>
> To answer the OP, there are many different IQ tests around. They are not consistent, and not intended to be, and indeed it is very doubtful whether they actually measure anything useful at all. If you sit a given IQ test and get a score of 125, pretty much all you know is that on that test, on that day, you scored 125. You haven’t learned anything at all about how intelligent you are. In fact, it’s very difficult to come up with any meaningful way of assessing ‘intelligence’. Gould’s book ‘The mismeasure of man’ is a good one to read if you’re interested in the history of IQ tests and how they have been abused to suit given political ends.

Well, if Gould’s book carries that much weight in academia, you had better get his ideas over to the Supreme Court Justices and quick! Or better, into the hands of a few of those ivy league, high-powered defense attorneys. Why? IQ scores are presently being used by the courts when determining who is and who isn’t eligible for the death penalty. That’s right, issues of who lives and dies may rest solely of the results of an IQ test.

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-iq-tests/231542/22 "2004-02-29T19:33:28Z")

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I took the GRE 18 months ago and there was _no_ calculus, so relax. Also, while the logic section is gone, it’s been replaced by a reasoning section. They give you problems, you write essays explaining your solutions to them. I’m not in a position to say if it’s harder or easier.

Don’t get me started on The Mismeasure of Man. If you score 125 on a real, proctored IQ test, you’re above average period.

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