Probably you are familiar with term IQ test. In a lot of printed publications, focused on women in particular, you may find them. Doing a web search will also find as many as you like. You’ll get this page of questions filling your screen and you’ve got to select your answer online quickly. Press ‘Submit’ and seconds later you will have the judgement of your mental capacity. Neat and simple.

But to start from the beginning, what is an IQ test really? And what does the score mean? IQ is the ‘Intelligence Quotient’, a number telling how ’smart’ you are compared to other people. It may be used to see if you are likely to do well in some proffessions or in academic studies.

The IQ test measures your intelligence to solve problems written on paper. Written problem solving is the core idea of IQ tests. The raw test scores are then compared to other persons. It’s one of the standard methods to estimate human intelligence.

IQ 100 is defined as the average of the whole population. Any score over 100 means you are more intelligent than average. Any score less than 100 indicates your intelligence level doesn’t match up to the average John Doe.

Advantages of the IQ Test

• Recruitment Let’s say you’re hiring someone for a new job. You could get a better understanding of the applicant’s intelligence by conducting an IQ test. You could select the type of test to use. This should be guided by the requirements for the type of work offered. A high score would indicate the candidate is well suited for the position. Some candidates who would probably not be able to do the work could be screened out this way.
• College entrance IQ tests could complement the SAT in the judgement of a student’s intellectual potential. As there are often fewer places than applicants, this could be an additional screening tool. That way there is a better chance to pick the top performers and weed out students with less potential.

Negative sides of the IQ test

• IQ tests don’t tell the full story Many people who score well in IQ tests may not perform well in real life situations. Quite a large share of high IQ persons are simply not as successful as you would expect from their IQ score.
• Other factors may be more important Many students with high IQ are a dissapointment when they hand in their term papers. Studies have found out that a student’s self-discipline is a better gauge of how well they’ll do at college or high school. Relying only on smartness is not enough you must put whatever IQ you have to work to do really well. Quite often students who made a stellar performance with little work at lower levels fare less well as courses become more difficult, as they are not used to work and become discouraged when they do not immediately understand.

• Many abilites are not measured by IQ testsLeadership is one area which is not measured by IQ tests It doesn’t measure your emotional quotient or EQ – how you’ll get along with other people, including co-workers, superiors and peers. There is also the theory of multiple intelligences, that defines 8 different aspects of intelligence that you may have to varying degrees. Intelligence is so much more than a single score.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 2:58 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.