Having been on, and having an excellent trivia memory, I can say that it is more seeing connections between things and retrieving them quickly than pure memorization. Which is why Watson was a good accomplishment. But my point wasn’t that there is a direct correlation, but that in one respect Dopers are very different from the general public, so that Doper IQs being skewed high is not that surprising. We have a very biased sample here, and that was one way to demonstrate it without running into the adding 25 points problem.
Ironically, I would now test a lot higher, since I learned how to administer and score the tests in graduate school!
My boyfriend is a French model! 
Part of what makes this instrument reliable and a valid indicator of an IQ is that it is administered in standard conditions in scored in a standard manner. There is no way to control for this when people sit at home (or wherever) and take the test on their computer (or whatever). Additionally, these tests measure multiple domains, not all of which are appropriate to the 2D screen (see earlier comment regarding block design configuration).
As for the mental health of “gifted students,” I knew one who really did seem fucked up in the head. Very intelligent, no question about that, but very fucked up.
I also used to work with a lady who was legally blind and who herself worked with blind children. She could not abide gifted students, because she said they got first crack at all the resources, and her students got the leftovers.
Seriously I would not be at all surprised that if the SD membership all took real IQ tests the results would cluster above the average population mean … 120 to 135, within the top 10% of the general population … sure. This is self-selected group of people who are intellectually curious for the most part and I’d be highly shocked if intellectual curiosity and IQ had no correlation whatsoever.
But over 30% claiming to be over 140, in the top 0.4% of the general population (on the 15 SD percentile scale)? You don’t need to be a genius to know that such is pretty improbable.
This group needs to get over itself.
Well, the group that responded to this poll is a self-selected group within the already self-selected larger group.
If you posted a poll for the men, “How big is your dick?” the results would be skewed, not just because SDMB men have bigger dicks than the male population at large (as everyone knows) but because the Dopers with the biggest dicks would respond disproportionately to the poll.
My guess is that the men with the biggest schlongs don’t feel any need to go around telling people about it. The men who claim that may be the biggest dicks but having them is another story. Just so with IQs methinks. But hey, I’m no genius so what do I know?
For what it’s worth, I said “average” because, aside from people with skewed samples (e.g., lots of dumb friends), I’ve never been told otherwise.
Okay, one potential confounder I can think of -
I answered don’t know (and don’t care, I do the best I can with whatever my … endowments … are) but who actually does know? I mean really know, not some silly on-line game of an IQ test? Those who get tested are those with a reason to be tested, the kids with significant learning issues of one sort or the other: disabilities; global delays; and parents believing they should be in gifted ed, or who seem bright but apparently underachieving. The average to bright average person really has had no cause to ever have found out. (Other than those eras where every student was tested in 2nd grade or some such and those people are usually reporting what they remember a sibling or parent told them rather an actual result.) Of those groups the “gifted,” the uneven LD with subtests very high, and the apparent underachievers are more likely to show up around here I guess.
How did she feel about blind gifted children?
DSeid, while I don’t have the results, every kid in my schools got tested at ages 6, 10 and 16. I’m reasonably sure the schools weren’t worried about all of us needing remedial ed.
Considering the apparent intelligence level of this thread, I am surprised to find that thus far 12.9% of the posts required editing.
Last time I had an official test was about 20 years ago. At that time I tested at 141 on the Wechsler scale. Previous tests had shown between 138 and 142, so that’s probably pretty accurate. There’s usually a confidence of ±1–2% on those things and I don’t remember swinging higher or lower than that. I probably would remember because it would have been unusual. I was tested a few times between childhood and teen years because I changed schools. I don’t remember actually how much of that was because we moved — which we did, three times between when I was 5 and 12 — and how much was because my parents were trying to find a good school for me.
That never came up. But seeing as this was West Texas some decades ago, I doubt the school authorities even admitted the possibility of a blind gifted student.
So, your school was in one of “those eras.” I really do not think routine IQ testing has been very common for at least a few decades. Most often it’s for cause and as part of a package of testing for that evaluation.
That’s been my experience, as well.
Schools used to give group IQ tests to their students that would yield rough estimates of the student’s academic aptitude, and some students may have been given or discovered their scores, though this is not advisable for obvious reasons. The military does the same thing through use of the ASVAB.
Individual IQ testing is generally reserved for students being considered for special education or, the gifted program in some cases, though many of these latter students are also screened and identified through group measures.
Doing individual IQ testing - and thereby obtaining the most valid IQ score - with every student in a school would be impractical and expensive.
When I was in junior high, which was quite some decades ago, every kid had been tested and in those pre-privacy days the IQs were in the teacher’s class book, often open on her desk and quite viewable by kids in the front row.
Now kids who get recommended for the gifted program in our district get tested, but I’m not sure the test includes an IQ test or not. If it did, they did not share the results with parents.
Me, too. I was tested in 7th grade (1960) as were all the kids in that grade (Massachusetts public school) at that time.
I took another IQ test when I was 28 years old (1977) in a testing class in graduate school (Educational Psychology). Everyone in the class took several tests of different kinds and an IQ test was one of them. I don’t remember what test it was. My score was identical to the score I got at age 11. I have a fair amount of confidence in the number.
When I was in middle school, we were tested as to the size of our package.
I brought the package our console TV came in, so I won.
I’ve never had any formal IQ testing, but based on on-line tests (I know, not very reliable), I’d hazard a guess that it’s in the low 130’s.
Just from what I’ve seen of you, I was guessing high 120s. Sorry.