From: Elizabeth Childs (echilds@linex.com)
Date: Mon Jun 07 1999 - 18:20:03 MDT
No, it's not "real", in the sense that it is not one of the commonly
used, heavily standardized tests like the Stanford-Binet or the
Wexler-Wais. Whatever defects the measurement of IQ has, the standard
IQ tests have been debated in scientific journals for fifty years and
normed over very large populations.
This guy can claim to have an IQ test that he's made up himself and
tested against a population of 10,000. It might even be a good first
approximation of IQ. But the test isn't extensive enough to replace
something like Stanford-Binet, and it hasn't proven itself in peer
review. There was one question that presumed knowledge of how many
ounces are in a pound, something only Americans are likely to know; the
standard IQ tests have been combed for this kind of bias.
Also I did better on the real one. :)
As far as measurement of IQ goes, it seems to me there's one type of
skill it can't measure at all - the ability to take an extremely large
body of knowledge (say, the amount of knowledge a PhD in a hard science
has) and have a creative new insight. This is probably correlated
fairly highly with IQ, but I can still imagine someone who has that
skill not scoring well on the test. People who are slow on tests, who
find the questions ambiguous because they see too many angles, who fill
in (b) when they meant (c) - might sometimes be people who have the
ability to make those deep insigths. This would explain why Feynman
only scored in the top 1%, rather than the top .1%.
Since this is the most valuable type of intellectual ability of all, I
wouldn't take IQ tests too seriously. You might not know what you can
do until you've put in the years.
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> [In reference to iqtest.com]
>
> > Is this site for real? The test was way shorter than the IQ
> > test I took as a kid. And I scored way higher :-)
> > (on second thought, why complain? :-)
>
> Didn't seem realistic to me, and the text on the site does not
> inspire confidence to say the least--looks like a scam to sell
> the $9.95 reports. I have a pretty good idea of what my IQ
> should be from other tests (SAT, etc.), and it ain't no 162,
> which is what I scored here.
>
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
> are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
> for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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