Probably you are familiar with term IQ test. You find them everywhere, in particular in ladies magazines. 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. Then you submit the test and before you can count to ten, you get your results – a two or three digit number.
But what exactly is an IQ test, anyway? And what does the score mean? IQ is the ‘Intelligence Quotient’, a measure of how smart you are compared to the whole population. It’s supposed to give you an idea of how well you’ll do at a certain profession or how well you’ll perform academically.
The whole idea of the IQ test is to measure the potential of your brains using problems posed to you on paper. What is measures is the ability to solve written problems. Then your results are compared to other people. It is the most used method to measure human intelligence.
Taken over the whole population the average IQ score is 100. Any score over 100 means you are more intelligent than average. A score below 100 tells that you are less intelligent than average.
Positive sides of the IQ test
- Recruitment E.g. you like to hire someone for a position. 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. The results should give a clue on the suitability of the candidate for the position. You could weed out those who don’t make the cut.
- Academic admission 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. You could pick the cream of the crop from the high IQ scorers and send rejection slips to those who didn’t make the grade.
Disadvantages of the IQ Test
- IQ tests are far from infallible though Many people who score well in IQ tests may not perform well in real life situations. It is quite common that they do not climb very fast or high on the corporate career ladder.
- 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. Many high IQ scorers have been overtaken by so-called ‘weaker’ minds with much lower IQ.
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Many abilites are not measured by IQ testsFor example IQ tests can’t measure how well you’ll do as a leader. Another area not covered is your emotional intelligence, also called EQ, how good you are at handling other people and relationships. 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.
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